Facebook, Google, Microsoft and others released on a Wednesday saying they were forming a coalition to announce talks with government agencies to secure the November presidential election.
The coalition includes: Facebook, Google, Twitter, Reddit, Microsoft, Verizon Media, Pinterest, LinkedIn (owned by Microsoft) and the Wikimedia Foundation.
“In recent years, we have worked hard in combination to counteract data operations on our platforms. In preparation for the next election, we meet regularly to discuss trends with U.S. government agencies tasked with protecting the integrity of elections,” he said.
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The effort aims to prevent a repeat of the 2016 elections, in which foreign actors introduced online disinformation campaigns to interfere with the process.
“We celebrate the latest in a series of meetings with government partners today, where we all provide updates on what we see on our respective platforms and what we expect to see in the coming months,” the message continues. “Specifically, we discussed arrangements for long-term conventions and the development of scenario plans similar to the final election results. We will remain vigilant about these problems and meet before the November election.”
In 2018, the report of Robert Mueller’s special suggestion on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential crusade detailed an elaborate and complicated kremlin-led operation to plant the department in the United States.
When USA TODAY reviewed the ads created through the Russian company tasked with orchestrating a major effort to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, we discovered that it systematically sold ads designed to stoke race-related tensions.
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Facebook said in October that it was strengthening the way it audited teams and others who place political advertising on their site. Twitter has recently hardened its moderation about incorrect information on the site.
Contribution: Nick Penzenstadler, Brad Heath and Jessica Guynn.