THE Electoral Commission and Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) joined hands with Google, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to fight the spread of disinformation during the municipal elections.
The Electoral Commission’s vice-chairperson, Janet Love said the framework was important because disinformation poses a threat to various rights being exercised.
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“The dissemination of disinformation has huge potential to undermine the fairness and credibility of elections. It also threatens democratic political and policy-making processes. Credible information is the lifeblood of all democracies. Trustworthy information is crucial in the process that enables citizens to choose their leaders,” said Love.
The Commission and MMA will use Real411, a system developed by the MMA, as well software, known as PADRE, to identify and eliminate misinformation and disinformation contained in advertisements published in all media.
MMA Africa’s director, William Bird explained how this will work:
“On Real411, once a complaint has been reviewed and points to constituting disinformation or misinformation, the Commission will notify the affected online platform. This notification will be acknowledged and processed as expeditiously as possible by the online platform,” he said.
He added that social media platforms have appointed persons or teams during the election period to prioritise referrals from the Commission.
Actions taken by the platforms are in terms of their policies and may include the removal of the content, the publication of an advisory warning and/or the delisting of the post.
The commission’s directorate consists of a panel of independent attorneys appointed to investigate complaints and make recommendations for possible further action to the commission. The panel of experts includes those with expertise in media law, social and digital media.
They will make recommendations for possible further action that could include:
- Referring the matter to the Electoral Court.
- Referring the matter to social media platforms to act upon in terms of their respective policies and undertakings.
- Issuing media statements to alert the public and correct the disinformation.
In addition to the online reporting platform, the initiative will also include the respective disinformation-related policies of the different platforms and information to help educate voters about the dangers of disinformation and to spot ‘fake news’.
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