A total of 2.2 million ads have been rejected on Facebook and Instagram and 120,000 posts have been removed for attempting to “obstruct the vote” in the upcoming US presidential election, Facebook Vice President Nick Clegg said in an interview. posted on Sunday.
In addition, warnings were posted about 150 million examples of false information posted online, the former British deputy prime minister told the French weekly Journal du Dimanche.
Facebook has been increasing its efforts to prevent a repeat of events leading up to the 2016 US presidential election, won by Donald Trump, when its network was used for voter manipulation attempts, carried out from Russia.
There were similar problems before the 2016 British referendum on leaving the European Union.
“Thirty-five thousand employees take care of the security of our platforms and contribute to the elections,” said Clegg, vice president of global affairs and communications at Facebook.
“We have established alliances with 70 specialized media, including five in France, on the verification of information,” he added.
AFP is one of those partners.
Clegg added that the company also uses artificial intelligence that “has made it possible to remove billions of fake posts and accounts, even before users report them.”
Facebook also stores all ads and information about their funding and provenance for seven years “to ensure transparency,” he said.
In 2016, when he was still deputy prime minister, Clegg complained to the Journal du Dimanche that Facebook had failed to identify or suppress a single foreign network interfering in the US elections.
On Wednesday, President Trump rebuked Facebook and Twitter for blocking links to a New York Post article that purported to expose corrupt dealings by election rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine.
A day earlier, Facebook announced a ban on ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, which the social media giant says has “highlighted the importance of preventive health behaviors.”
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