Advocates have been calling on the social media giants to do more to combat disinformation for months. In May, 120 organizations called on the platforms to do more to combat disinformation and on Thursday, the 11 organizations that sent the letter to the CEOs of Meta , Twitter, YouTube, Snap, Instagram, TikTok, and Alphabet claimed that"the platforms have simply rolled out essentially the same set of policies that led to the social media election disinformation disaster two years ago.
This is not the first time advocates have been concerned about disinformation as several of the civil rights groups who signed onto the letter were vocal leading up to the 2020 election about concerns. The organizations wrote to the CEO's"disinformation around the 2022 midterms is inextricably intertwined with disinformation from the 2020 presidential election, with bad actors recycling many of the false claims made just two years prior.
Meta told ABC News that they have invested in $5 million worth of fact-checking and media literacy initiatives ahead of the November midterms. They've partnered with Telemundo, TelevisaUnivision, and Reuters to launch fact-checking tip lines in Spanish on WhatsApp and now offer free media literacy courses on SMS and WhatsApp to help teach individuals to identify misinformation.