Facebook to deploy task force for 2019 polls

Facebook on Saturday said it will deploy a task force to keep a check on hate speeches during general elections next year.

"We want our platform to support the free and fair election and positive civic engagement. We welcome people to engage with their political leaders but we don't want people to abuse them," Facebook Vice President for Public Policy EMEA Richard Allan told reporters.

Facebook has come up with a policy around hate speech under which it removes content that intends to spread hate speech and violence etc.

The US-based social networking site has faced criticism for the misuse of its platform for manipulating views during elections, spreading hate speech etc.

“We have a task force working on that. We are trying to understand what is the possible form of abuse in India versus the UK versus any other country," he said.

Facebook blocks content using automation as well as through experts after scrutinising it. The social media major has developed its guidelines based on feedback from local community experts.

The company has developed a good capacity to remove terrorist content, child abuse images and other images that cannot be legally shared through automation, he said.

The social media giant has plans to have around 20,000 people working across different aspect of building the automation tools, security and content review to check hate speech. The company is also working on features to enhance transparency on political advertisements on its platform during Indian elections by March. Allan said that phase one of the plan has been already implemented in India.