US Senator asks social media companies about preparations for elections in India, other nations

With over 70 countries holding elections and more than two billion people casting ballots this year, 2024 is the “year of democracy”.Australia, Belgium, Croatia, the European Union, Finland, Ghana, Iceland, India, Lithuania, Namibia, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Panama, Romania, Senegal, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States are expected to hold major electoral contests this year.In his letter to Elon Musk of X, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Shou Zi Chew of Tik Tok and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, Bennet requested information on the platforms’ election-related policies, content moderation teams, including the languages covered and the number of moderators on full-time or part-time contracts, and tools adopted to identify AI-generated content.”Democracy’s promise — that people rule themselves — is fragile,” Bennet continued.”Disinformation and misinformation poison democratic discourse by muddying the distinction between fact and fiction. Your platforms should strengthen democracy, not undermine it,” he wrote.”In India, the world’s largest democracy, the country’s dominant social media platforms — including Meta-owned WhatsApp — have a long track record of amplifying misleading and false content. Political actors that fan ethnic resentment for their own benefit have found easy access to disinformation networks on your platforms,” the Senator wrote.Bennet then asked about details of their new policies and people that have placed for India elections.”What, if any, new policies have you put in place to prepare for the 2024 Indian election? How many content moderators do you currently employ in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili, and Dogri?” he asked.”Of these, please provide a breakdown between full-time employees and contractors,” Bennet said.



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