17th May, 2018
The Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council is teaming up with Facebook to help monitor attempts to spread “disinformation” in elections around the world, the think tank said on Thursday.
“The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (@DFRLab) today announced a partnership with Facebook to independently monitor disinformation and other vulnerabilities in elections around the world,’’ the release said.
Atlantic Council President and CEO Fred Kempe said the goal of the partnership was to strengthen democracy and ensure that tools intended to bring people closer together are not used to drive them further apart.
The partnership is part of an initiative Facebook launched in April to provide research about the role of social media in elections and democracy.
Facebook also planned to put together a commission with academic experts to look at the impact of social media on society, starting with elections, to understand the role of Facebook in upcoming election around the world.
Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook has taken steps to improve transparency, including stricter rules for ad placement, fact-checking photos, videos and links, as well as adding technology to get rid of fake accounts and improve security.