The Importance of Election Coalitions Around the World
The Importance of Election Coalitions Around the World
Lessons from Seven Partnerships to Combat Misinformation
Since the U.S. 2016 election, I’ve spent much time looking back, trying to understand where we as a tech community and inside of Meta/Facebook, could have realized the risks faster or made different decisions.
It’s interesting how certain moments pop out that didn’t feel super significant at the time but in hindsight stick with you. The Economist’s cover story from its September 10, 2016 issue, is one of those.
Titled “The Art of the Lie: Post-truth Politics in the Age of Social Media” the article looks at the havoc then-candidate Donald Trump had on the information environment and speculates where it might go. It ends with saying, “If Mr Trump loses in November, post-truth will seem less menacing, though he has been too successful for it to go away. The deeper worry is for countries like Russia and Turkey, where autocrats use the techniques of post-truth to silence opponents.”
I remember reading this and thinking how big of an issue this was going to be for elections the following year (2017) in France and Germany. We speculated if Trump would create his own media brand after the election and how much chaos that would cause. I remember going to some product leaders asking how we might get ahead of this, and the answer I got was, “How in the world would we determine what was true or not?”
Fast forward to ten days after the election, and Mark is posting about how the company will approach misinformation, and a month later, the first tools are rolled out. Partnerships with five fact-checking organizations were also announced.
Over the years, many other online platforms, including Google, TikTok, Microsoft, Snap, etc., have formed fact-checking programs and built tools to help people better identify fakes. These efforts have all been turbocharged with concerns about what AI will do to the information space.
One of the most volatile times for manipulating the information environment is during elections. While partnering with tech companies is important, it is also important that news organizations, fact-checkers, and community groups come together to serve the voters of that country. Since 2017, numerous coalitions have formed around the globe.
As we go into this big year of elections—and beyond (trust me, there’s always an election happening somewhere)—I was excited to partner with Google to pull together an Election Coalitions Playbook that has seven case studies from election coalitions in France, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Nigeria, and the Philippines. We also pulled out some lessons learned to provide a playbook for others who might want to set up something similar. This playbook is the culmination of a six-month research project involving interviews with fifteen global experts.
For instance, we cover things such as defining membership in the organization, building capacity, identifying roles, evaluating success, and strategizing for sustainability. We also examine how AI and other emerging trends for fabricated content impact this space.
This space is rapidly changing as new technologies and platforms emerge. Coalitions are an important part of the ecosystem to ensure that people have access to reliable information during times such as elections. Even though some of the major elections are only weeks away, these lessons can be implemented anywhere between months to years ahead of when people go to the polls. Let’s not just be thinking about 2024 but elections in 2025 and beyond as well.
Company Fact-Checking Resources
4 ways to use Google Search to check facts, images and sources
New partnerships and initiatives to strengthen fact-checking online
Meta
Meta expands third-party fact checking programme in India with PTI - The Economic Times
MCA’s WhatsApp Helpline: Curbing The Spread of AI-Generated Misinformation In India
Microsoft
TikTok
Snap
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