Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, has set up teams of experts to prevent any unlawful intervention in elections, notably the upcoming local vote in Türkiye, according to a Meta official.
"In addition to constantly updating our election policies and detecting proactive threats, we help prevent any intervention in elections or voters by removing content that violates our community standards," Meta Türkiye and Azerbaijan Public Policies Director Sezen Yeşil told Anadolu Agency (AA) a week ahead of the mayoral poll in Türkiye.
"Our experts are focusing on coordinated ill-use to intervene in public discourse," Yeşil explained. "We immediately take action when we detect such activity on our platforms, especially when it’s about elections."
She said Meta had advanced security operations to bust manipulation campaigns and unearth emerging threats, listing the Advertisement Library as one example.
Meta adds all political or election-based ads to this library to be preserved for seven years, allowing the public to see which ads are in circulation, their targets and how much they’ve cost.
If anyone wants to put up an ad for elections or politics, the advertisers must prove who they are and where they reside.
"We’re constantly working to improve the transparency of ads and honesty of elections on Facebook and Instagram," Yeşil said.
The specifically crafted spread of disinformation and manipulative schemes on social media venues to influence public perception about standing candidates or parties has long been public knowledge.
Similarly, fears of electoral intervention made headlines ahead of the presidential and parliamentary polls in May last year after social media giant X, then known as Twitter, was accused of censoring certain topics and amplifying opposition voices.
Yeşil’s assurance comes a week before the high-stakes local elections in which some 61.4 million eligible voters will elect new mayors and other office-holders in the local governments of 81 provinces and districts.
According to the Supreme Election Council (YSK), the March 31 polls will see 1.32 million first-time voters at 206 voting stations set up nationwide.
Some 34 political parties are vying for mayoral seats in 973 districts and 390 towns, while 50,336 candidates are vying for the office of mukhtar in 81 cities.
The blackout period started last Thursday where broadcasting or publishing polls, surveys, predictions and mini referendums to influence voters are prohibited. The propaganda period ends on Saturday, March 30, for all competing parties.
Istanbul is the most politically important administrative city in Türkiye, so the mayoral race for Istanbul has been at the forefront of the campaigning period.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is eager to regain the metropolitan from Ekrem Imamoğlu, the mayor of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).