March 15, 2022 — 12.01am
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Facebook has made no commitment about how quickly it will act on false political claims that go viral on its platform during the federal election campaign, saying it will be left to independent fact-checking units to determine the time frame for debunking misinformation online.
Parent company Meta, which also owns Instagram, has vowed to deliver its most rigorous approach yet to combating misinformation and election interference ahead of the anticipated federal poll in May, including through a new third-party fact-checking program with RMIT University.
Josh Machin, head of public policy for Meta Australia, said the company had provided one-off grants to RMIT FactLab and its two other existing fact-checking partners – Agence France Presse and the Australian Associated Press – to increase their capacity in the lead up to the election. But it is not clear how well-resourced they will be, with Mr Machin declining to disclose the grant amount on the basis of commercial confidentiality.
He said the fact-checking units would have “full discretion” over how to spend the money and the time-frames for determining the veracity of content circulated on the platform.
“It’s up to them how they spend it. That might mean that they’re responding to things quicker, it might mean that they’re responding to more claims that they potentially see,” Mr Machin said during a briefing to reporters on...
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