Meta Platforms Inc. has pledged to strictly enforce its independent fact-checking program ahead of Australia’s national election in May, nearly three months after it dismantled U.S. operations in a move many speculated to be an attempt to assuage the current administration.
The social media giant on Tuesday said it would detect and remove deepfakes and false content that could lead to violence and physical harm, meddle with voting, and propagate misleading information on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp ahead of the election Down Under.
Meta has partnered with trusted news agencies Agence France-Presse and the Australian Associated Press to review content flagged as potentially misleading.
“When content is debunked by fact-checkers, we attach warning labels to the content and reduce its distribution in Feed and Explore so it is less likely to be seen,” Cheryl Seeto, Meta’s Head of Policy in Australia, said in a blog post.
Facebook’s parent company said any deepfakes that violate corporate policy will be taken down or deemed “altered,” in which their ranking is dropped in the feed to minimize distribution. Users will be asked to disclose when they post or share artificial intelligence- (AI) generated content.
“For content that doesn’t violate our policies, we still believe it’s important for people to know when photorealistic content they’re seeing has been created using AI,” Seeto wrote.
Meta’s move in Australia provides a perplexing bookend to its stance on fact checking. On Jan. 7, the four-year anniversary of the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company was replacing third-party content moderators with user-written “community notes” similar to those on Elon Musk’s social media platform X. Conservatives have long sought for such changes, led by President Donald Trump.
Since its controversial decision in early January, Meta says it has redoubled efforts to combat the spread of misinformation during recent elections in Britain, India and the United States.
Meta’s avowed commitment comes as it faces regulatory issues in Australia, where the government says it intends to enforce fines on Big Tech companies like Meta and Google to compensate for the advertising revenue they generate from sharing local news content. Traditional news organizations are feeling the financial strain of a massive shift by consumers to online platforms.
Social media firms including Meta must also enforce a ban of users under 16 by the end of 2025, according to the Australian government.
