election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janatu Party exploited longstanding divisions tied to social and religious identities to rally his base against the rival Indian National Congress. The BJP mobilized hundreds of thousands of neighborhood WhatsApp users to pump out messages filled with inflammatory disinformation.
In the face of this insufficient action by these companies, an increasing number of governments now are moving to regulate political content. In recent months, Australia and Singapore have passed new laws allowing government to police online platforms aggressively. The governments of the UK and France are debating similar proposals. Government restrictions on content pose a threat to the basic human right of free speech.
Here are three broad areas where the companies now need to act: First, each company needs to build staff capacity in all of the places where they are doing business. They cannot outsource this agenda because they alone have the access and tools to best address disinformation in real time. This will require a significant investment in people.
Address it? Their business thrives on it. It's what brings them clicks and shares and therefore ad revenue. Any attempt to address it will be grudging, half-hearted, and to fend off regulation. It will fail.
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Source: MarketWatch - 🏆 3. / 97 Read more »