ISLAMABAD: As preparations are underway to avoid delay in holding of general elections in Pakistan, Facebook has launched an awareness campaign regarding the community safety to protect vulnerable people from online threats and harassment as well as containing the flow of fake and manipulated news.

The campaign, ‘Approach to Protect Election Integrity and Support Community Safety in Pakistan’, has been launched ahead of the elections, as online activities surge manifolds during the elections, while many sections of society including media become targets of harassment, undue criticism as well as online threats.

Alice Budisatrijo, Head of Misinformation Policy, Meta, Asia Pacific said the campaign for Pakistan has been drawn from the global experiences and inputs from experts. “We want to help preserve the integrity of elections around the world, including here in Pakistan,” Ms Budisatrijo said.

“Over the years, we have developed a comprehensive approach to how elections play out on our platforms, and we continue to invest significantly on efforts and resources to connect people to reliable information about voting, while combating misinformation, hate speech, and voter interference,” she added.

Meta is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Measures to be taken

Meta has shared updates on how it will help keep Pakistan’s communities safe and protect the integrity of the upcoming general election.

These measures include forming an election operations team and stronger policies to address harmful content and networks have been developed to combat misinformation, increasing transparency for political ads, as well as driving digital literacy and civic education programmes.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2023