Facebook’s Zuckerberg: 40,000 Staff Now Tackling Election Misinformation

Meta, which offers popular apps like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said that as global elections continue to dominate headlines in 2024, no tech company is investing more in securing online elections than the social media giant. The company said that currently, it has more than 40,000 people working worldwide to secure online elections. The social media giant claims it has invested more than $20 billion so far to build teams and technology to secure online elections. General elections will be held in South Africa on May 29 this year.

“As the election approaches, we will activate a South Africa-specific Election Operations Center to identify and mitigate potential threats in real time,” Meta said in a statement. The company said it has the largest fact-checking network with partners in South Africa, fact-checking in English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Sotho and Setswana languages. “We are working directly with the South African Electoral Commission (IEC) to help prepare for the election,” the company informed. The company said it has made it easier for its fact-checking partners in South Africa to “find and rate election-related content”. “We’ll use keyword detection to group related content in one place, making it easier for fact-checkers to find.”