After EU, US senator raises concerns about misinformation to Google, X, Meta

There has been a reported catastrophic surge in the spread of disinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict, global institutions have urged and launched enquiries with global tech giants to curb the spread of fake news in an already volatile atmosphere. The EU has already written to Meta, TikTok, and X highlighting these complaints. According to Reuters, in this vein, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet has launched an inquiry into tech giants Meta, TikTok, and Google. In his letter, Senator Bennet, who is a Democrat, enquired about concerns over the dissemination of incendiary false content on social media platforms and the potential impact it could have on the prevailing conflict. On October 17, the senator from the state of Colorado posted the following on X.

According to the Reuters report, there have been reports about how these tech companies have faced growing criticism for their handling of such content in the wake of the ongoing conflict, with older, dated visuals, video game footage, and even altered documents being shared widely since the violence has broken out in the conflicted land on October 7. An analysis by Newslaundry has highlighted that fact-checkers have been confronted with a humongous rise in unverified information in the wake of the conflict. The analysis also points out to several observers saying that the social media site X has enabled this surge.

Furthermore, Senator Bennet has asserted that, “Deceptive content has ricocheted across social media sites since the conflict began, sometimes receiving millions of views,” Bennet expressed in a letter addressed to the company top brass. He has further noted that the algorithms used by these platforms have, in many instances, further worsened the spread of misleading content, contributing to a concerning cycle of outrage, engagement, and further sharing.

In his letter, Senator Bennet has posed these series of questions to Meta, TikTok, and Google, seeking detailed information about their content moderation practices and he has requested responses from the tech giants by October 31.

According to reports, the social media giants have taken some steps in response to the conflict. TikTok has reportedly announced that it has hired more Arabic and Hebrew-speaking content moderators. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, stated that it removed or marked as disturbing over 795,000 pieces of content in Hebrew or Arabic within the first three days following the Hamas attack. X and YouTube have also reported the removal of harmful content.

However, Senator Bennet has argued that, in light of the growing human catastrophe, these actions are insufficient. He pointed out, “The mountain of false content clearly demonstrates that your current policies and protocols are inadequate.”

“These decisions contribute to a cascade of violence, paranoia, and distrust around the world,” Senator Bennet asserted. “Your platforms are helping produce an information ecosystem in which basic facts are increasingly in dispute, while untrustworthy sources are repeatedly designated as authoritative.”

Back in February, the Indian Express reported that the IT Ministry had engaged in talks with top social media companies, like Meta and Google, to recognise network fact checkers in India. These fact-checkers would be responsible for flagging and debunking misinformation on social media platforms. However, this fact-checking, according to the report, would not pertain to information according to the Union government. The opposition alliance, INDIA, has also reportedly written to Meta and Google earlier this year about ‘communal hatred’ after an investigative piece by Washington Post highlighted alleged that social media sites took a biased approach to the content favouring the BJP.

Similarly, according to a report by SabrangIndia, earlier this month, after the release of Meta’s second human rights report, Indian activists broadly criticised it on the basis that it lacks a concrete plan to address the issues in India. It has pointed out the report’s failure to demonstrate significant, measurable progress in addressing human rights concerns in India or presenting clear strategies to prepare for the 2024 general elections.

Furthermore, what is alarming is news of social media sites aiding this misinformation campaign inadvertently through their policies. The European Union has for instance publicly called on X, Meta, and Facebook to address the issue of false information on their platforms. EU’s Thierry Breton earlier last week made a scathing criticism of social media companies in a strongly worded letter, and has demanded more stringent measures to combat disinformation during the escalating conflict.

However, industry researchers and experts, according to this report, are sceptical and unhopeful of this being sufficient to address the task at hand. Their concern is especially related to X because while, X has been in the news for removing hundreds of accounts linked to Hamas with its CEO, Linda Yaccarino detailing the company’s efforts to combat illegal content, mentioning that they have taken action to “remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content.” Nonetheless, a former employee who had worked with X’s team expressed doubts about the platform’s ability to effectively address this problem. Furthermore, the CBC report also pointed out that X had intentionally reduced its capacity to handle such issues, particularly after it decided to downsize its Content Moderation team. The entire content management team which looked after misinformation on the social media site was reportedly laid off in October 2022 after Elon Musk took over Twitter. “There aren’t as many people involved in the ecosystem whose day-to-day job was connected to tackling disinformation,” she said.

Senator Bennet has also criticised the four companies for downsizing their teams over the past year which have been responsible for monitoring false and misleading content. X, in particular, cut 15% of its trust and safety staff in November 2022, and further reductions were made last month. Meta reduced 100 similar positions in January, while Google scaled back a team working on countering online hate speech and disinformation by a third.

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