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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 20 OctOber 2018

Facebook’s election ‘war room’ takes aim at fake information

service or if it’s just a “tem-
porary conference room
with a bunch of computer
monitors in it,” said Molly
McKew, a self-described
“information warfare” re-
searcher for New Media
Frontier, which studies the
flow of content on social
media.
McKew believes Facebook
is conflicted about block-
ing some content it already
knows is suspect “because
they keep people on their
platform by sparking an
emotional response, so
they like they like the con-
troversial stuff. There will al-
ways be this toeing of the
line about pulling down
radical, crazy content be-
cause that’s what people
engage on, and that’s
what they want.”
Facebook defends its
war room as an effective
weapon against misinfor-
mation, although its efforts
are still a work in progress.
Chakrabarti, for instance,
acknowledged that some
“bugs” prevented Face-
Samidh Chakrabarti, Director of Elections and Civic Engagement, from left, listens with Katie Harbath, Global Politics and Government book from taking some
Outreach Director and Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy as Tom Reynolds, Policy Communications, speaks to them
during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., unspecified actions to pre-
Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. vent manipulation efforts
Associated Press in the first round of Brazil’s
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE critics now believe pose a ond round of presidential of pages set up by foreign presidential election earlier
AP Technology Writer threat to democracy. elections in Brazil on Oct. 28 governments and other this month. He declined to
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Days after President Don- and the U.S. midterm elec- agents looking to create elaborate.
In an otherwise innocuous ald Trump’s surprise victory, tions on Nov. 6. mischief. The war room is currently fo-
part of Facebook’s expan- Zuckerberg brushed off as- “There is no substitute for But it remains unclear cused on Brazil’s next round
sive Silicon Valley campus, sertions that the outcome physical, real-world in- whether Facebook is do- of elections and upcoming
a locked door bears a had been influenced by teraction,” said Samidh ing enough, said Angelo U.S. midterms. Large U.S.
taped-on sign that reads fictional news stories on Chakrabarti, Facebook’s Carusone, president of Me- and Brazilian flags hang on
“War Room.” Behind the Facebook, calling the idea director of elections and dia Matters For America, a opposing walls and clocks
door lies a nerve center the “pretty crazy .” civic engagement. “The liberal group that monitors show the time in both coun-
social network has set up But Facebook’s blase atti- primary thing we have misinformation. He noted tries. Facebook declined to
to combat fake accounts tude shifted as criticism of learned is just how effective that the sensational themes let the media scrutinize the
and bogus news stories the company mounted in it is to have people in the distributed in fictional news computer screens in front
ahead of upcoming elec- Congress and elsewhere. same room all together.” stories can be highly ef- of the employees, and re-
tions. Later that year, it acknowl- More than 20 different fective at keeping people quired reporters to refrain
Inside the room are doz- edged having run thou- teams now coordinate the “engaged” on Facebook from mentioning some of
ens of employees staring sands of ads promoting efforts of more than 20,000 — which in turn makes it the equipment inside the
intently at their monitors false information placed people — mostly contrac- possible to sell more of the war room, calling it “pro-
while data streams across by Russian agents. Zucker- tors — devoted to blocking ads that generate most of prietary information.” While
giant dashboards. On the berg eventually made fix- fake accounts and fictional Facebook’s revenue. on duty, war-room workers
walls are posters of the sort ing Facebook his personal news and stopping other “What they are doing so far are only allowed to leave
Facebook frequently uses challenge for 2018. abuses on Facebook and seems to be more about the room for short bath-
to caution or exhort its em- The war room is a major its other services. As part trying to prevent another room breaks or to grab
ployees. One reads, “Noth- part of Facebook’s ongo- of the crackdown, Face- public relations disaster food to eat at their desks.
ing at Facebook is some- ing repairs. Its technology book also has hired fact and less so about putting in Although no final decisions
body else’s problem.” draws upon the artificial checkers, including The As- meaningful solutions to the have been made, the war
That motto might strike intelligence system Face- sociated Press, to vet new problem,” Carusone said. room is likely to become a
some as ironic, given that book has been using to stories posted on its social “On balance, I would say permanent fixture at Face-
the war room was cre- help identify “inauthen- network. they that are still way off.” book, said Katie Harbath,
ated to counter threats tic” posts and user behav- Facebook credits its war The election war room and Facebook’s director of
that almost no one at the ior. Facebook provided a room and other stepped- its inner workings remain global politics and govern-
company, least of all CEO tightly controlled glimpse up patrolling efforts for too opaque to determine ment outreach.
Mark Zuckerberg, took seri- at its war room to The As- booting 1.3 billion fake ac- whether it’s helping Face- “It is a constant arms race,”
ously just two years ago — sociated Press and other counts over the past year book do a better job of she said. “This is our new
and which the company’s media ahead of the sec- and jettisoning hundreds keeping garbage off its normal.”q