Meta has announced plans to open an elections operations centre in Nigeria for the 2023 general elections.
It stated that it was investing in people and technology to reduce the spread of misinformation and remove harmful content from its apps in order to help ensure a safe and secure general election in the country.
This was revealed in a post titled ‘How Meta is Preparing for Nigeria’s 2023 General Elections’ by Adaora Ikenze, Head of Public Policy for Anglophone West Africa.
The firm stated that its election work would continue in the run-up to, during, and after the election.
It said, “As Election Day approaches, we will activate a Nigeria-specific Elections Operations Center focused on identifying potential threats across our apps and technologies in real-time, accelerating our response time.
“This initiative will bring together experts from across our company on our intelligence, data science, engineering, research, operations, public policy and legal teams.”
Meta explained that part of its strategy to combat misinformation and false news would involve removing serious kinds of misinformation from Facebook and Instagram, such as content that could contribute to imminent violence or physical harm, or intended to suppress voting.
It stated that for the Nigerian elections, it would remove photos and videos shared out of context that falsely depict ballot stuffing, acts of violence, or weapons.