Facebook Says It’s Making Progress in Election Preparedness

Facebook says it is making progress weeding out fake accounts and fake news on its service. The moves are aimed at preventing election interference ahead of the U.S. midterms.

Samidh Chakrabarti, a product manager, said in a conference call Thursday that Facebook is using machine learning to block fake accounts before they spread misinformation, rather than wait for reports from users. Suspicious accounts are then reviewed by humans — similar to ways Facebook monitors other malicious content.

Facebook is also expanding its fact-checking efforts beyond the written word to include photos and videos. And it plans to launch a public archive of elections-related ads by the summer.

Guy Rosen, a vice president, said Facebook is also looking ahead to prevent new kinds of threats but provided no details.
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