Page 14 - ARUBA TODAY AUG 16 2022

A14 technology
Tuesday 16 augusT 2022
Strike four: Facebook misses election misinfo in Brazil ads

By BARBARA ORTUTAY In another study carried
AP Technology Writer out by the Federal Univer-
Facebook failed to de- sity of Rio de Janeiro, re-
tect blatant election-re- searchers identified more
lated misinformation in than two dozen ads on
ads ahead of Brazil's 2022 Facebook and Instagram,
election, a new report from for the month of July, that
Global Witness has found, promoted misleading in-
continuing a pattern of not formation or attacked the
catching material that vio- country's electronic voting
lates its policies the group machines.
describes as "alarming." The university's internet and
The advertisements con- social media department,
tained false information NetLab, which also partici-
about the country's up- pated in the Global Witness
coming election, such as study, found that many of
promoting the wrong elec- those had been financed
tion date, incorrect voting by candidates running for
methods and questioning a seat at a federal or state
the integrity of the election legislature.
— including Brazil's elec- This will be Brazil's first elec-
tronic voting system. tion since far-right Presi-
This is the fourth time that An iPhone displays the Facebook app in New Orleans, Aug. 11, 2019. dent Jair Bolsonaro, who is
the London-based non- Associated Press seeking reelection, came
profit has tested Meta's to power. Bolsonaro has
ability to catch blatant vio- cess. Facebook is the most among Americans. because Meta claims to repeatedly attacked the
lations of the rules of its most popular social media plat- Global Witness said it broke hold advertisements to an integrity of the country's
popular social media plat- form in the country. In a these rules when it submit- "even stricter" standard electronic voting system.
form— and the fourth such statement, Meta said it has ted the test ads (which than regular, unpaid posts, "Disinformation featured
test Facebook has flubbed. " prepared extensively for were approved for publi- according to its help cen- heavily in its 2018 election,
In the three prior instances, the 2022 election in Brazil." cation but were never ac- ter page for paid advertise- and this year's election is
Global Witness submitted "We've launched tools that tually published). The group ments. already marred by reports
advertisements containing promote reliable informa- placed the ads from out- But judging from the four of widespread disinforma-
violent hate speech to see tion and label election-re- side Brazil, from Nairobi and investigations, Lloyd said tion, spread from the very
if Facebook's controls — ei- lated posts, established a London, which should have that's not actually clear. top: Bolsonaro is already
ther human reviewers or ar- direct channel for the Su- raised red flags. "We we are constantly hav- seeding doubt about the
tificial intelligence — would perior Electoral Court (Bra- It was also not required to ing to take Facebook at legitimacy of the election
catch them. They did not. zil's electoral authority) to put a "paid for by" disclaim- their word. And without a result, leading to fears of a
"Facebook has identified send us potentially-harmful er on the ads and did not verified independent third United States-inspired Jan-
Brazil as one of its priority content for review, and use a Brazilian payment party audit, we just can't uary 6 'stop the steal' style
countries where it's invest- continue closely collabo- method — all safeguards hold Meta or any other coup attempt," Global
ing special resources spe- rating with Brazilian authori- Facebook says it had put tech company account- Witness said. In its previous
cifically to tackle election ties and researchers," the in place to prevent misuse able for what they say investigations, the group
related disinformation," company said. of its platform by malicious they're doing," he said. found that Facebook did
said Jon Lloyd, senior ad- In 2020 Facebook began actors trying to intervene in Global Witness submitted not catch hate speech in
visor at Global Witness. requiring advertisers who elections around the world. ten ads to Meta that obvi- Myanmar, where ads used
"So we wanted to really wish to run ads about elec- "What's quite clear from ously violated its policies a slur to refer to people of
test out their systems with tions or politics to complete the results of this investiga- around election-related East Indian or Muslim origin
enough time for them to an authorization process tion and others is that their advertising. They included and call for their deaths;
act. And with the U.S. mid- and include "paid for by" content moderation ca- false information about in Ethiopia, where the ads
terms around the corner, disclaimers on them, similar pabilities and the integrity when and where to vote, used dehumanizing hate
Meta simply has to get this to what it does in the U.S. systems that they deploy in for instance and called speech to call for the mur-
right — and right now." The increased safeguards order to mitigate some of into question the integrity der of people belonging
Brazil's national elections follow the 2016 U.S. presi- the risk during election pe- of Brazil's voting machines to each of Ethiopia's three
will be held on Oct. 2 amid dential elections, when riods, it's just not working," — echoing disinformation main ethnic groups; and
high tensions and disin- Russia used rubles to pay Lloyd said. used by malicious actors in Kenya, where the ads
formation threatening to for political ads designed The group is using ads as a to destabilize democracies spoke of beheadings, rape
discredit the electoral pro- to stoke divisions and unrest test and not regular posts around the world. and bloodshed.q

UN chief taps Grenada's Simon Stiell as new UN climate chief

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secre- an engineer and earned an MBA panies from Silicon Valley tech- the world who are most vulnerable.
tary-General Antonio Guterres an- there, was a senior member in Gre- nology start-ups to major corpo- Reacting recently to a scientific re-
nounced the appointment Mon- nada's government from 2013 until rations, including Nokia and GEC port about the effects of climate
day of Simon Stiell from the Carib- June 2022, serving as minister for Plessey Telecommunications. change already affecting more
bean island nation of Grenada as climate resilience and the environ- In recent years Stiell has been than 3 billion people worldwide,
the new U.N. climate chief, calling ment for five years. among a handful of prominent Stiell warned that inaction would
him, "a true champion" of creative Prior to joining the government, he figures from vulnerable nations de- be "catastrophic." "Nothing less
approaches to tackling the global spent 14 years in the technology manding that rich countries step than the most extreme measures
climate crisis. Stiell, who originally sector, holding senior executive up their efforts to combat climate to cut emissions and adapt to this
trained in the United Kingdom as positions in industry leading com- change and help those around crisis can be justified," he said.q