Thailand plans to counter the menace of fake news and disinformation campaign ahead of national polls slated for May in partnership with popular platforms such as TikTok and Facebook.
(Bloomberg) — Thailand plans to counter the menace of fake news and disinformation campaign ahead of national polls slated for May in partnership with popular platforms such as TikTok and Facebook.
The Election Commission of Thailand and TikTok will jointly set up an “election center” to combat content that violates election rules, according to Election Commission Secretary-General Sawaeng Boonmee. The center will also be used to disseminate information and scrutinize misleading political content, he said.
TikTok, owned by ByteDance Ltd., will ban paid advertisements for political content ahead of the election, said Chanida Klyphun, the platform’s head of public policy in Thailand. An “election report” button will also be available on the platform for users to flag content to moderators, she said.
Most political parties have kicked off pre-election campaigns with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha and opposition Pheu Thai Party’s Paetongtarn Shinawatra criss-crossing the country to address rallies and taking to the social media to woo voters. Candidates from more than 80 political parties are expected to contest for a total of 500 seats, including 100 party-list positions to the House of Representatives.
“The cooperation reflects our commitment to disseminating correct information about the election that will help people decide to go out to vote,” poll panel’s Sawaeng said at a briefing on Friday.
Thailand has about 52.3 million active social media users, representing about 72% of the country’s population, according to a report by We Are Social and Meltwater. Among the most popular platforms are Facebook, Line Corp.’s app and TikTok.
The election commission has also sought cooperation from Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google, Sawaeng said.
“We are focusing on social media because of its significant role in political campaigning,” he said. “We’re not too worried about political parties as they’re already quite careful, but the concern is more about their supporters.”
The election commission will also use its own election “war room” that was set up ahead of the 2019 elections to regulate online content that may violate campaigning rules, Sawaeng said.
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