(Washington) TikTok and Facebook validated advertisements containing false statements about the American election a few weeks before the vote, according to an investigation Thursday by an NGO which questions the platforms’ rules for detecting disinformation.
Published yesterday at 8:58 p.m.
Global Witness submitted eight advertisements containing false claims, such as the possibility of online voting, to the TikTok, Facebook and YouTube platforms for testing just before the presidential election on November 5.
TikTok, which allowed four to pass despite its policy of banning political advertisements, obtained “the worst results”, according to Global Witness. Facebook approved one of the eight.
So close to such an undecided electoral deadline between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, “it is shocking that social networks continue to validate disinformation content,” assured Ava Lee, who heads campaigns against digital threats. at Global Witness. “In 2024, everyone […] knows how important it is to have qualitative moderation systems.”
These platforms “have no excuse” for “continuing to endanger the democratic process,” she added.
A TikTok spokeswoman said four of the ads “were mistakenly approved at the first level of moderation” and that the app – which is owned by a China-based company – would “continue to enforce” its policy. ban on political ads.
At Meta, which owns Facebook, a spokeswoman disputed the study’s finding, saying it was based on a small sample of ads and therefore “does not reflect how [Meta] enforced its rules on a large scale.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, initially validated half of the proposed advertisements, but then blocked their publication until identification was obtained. It is a “considerably more robust barrier” against disinformation, Global Witness judged.
Google said Thursday that it would “temporarily pause advertisements” related to the US elections after the polls closed on November 5, as it did in 2020 during the presidential election between Mr. Trump and Democrat Joe Biden .
The tech giant took this step “as a precaution,” explaining that vote counting could continue for several days after the election.
Meta, for its part, announced that it would block all new political advertising during the last week of the electoral campaign.
Related News :