In anticipation of the upcoming presidential elections in Poland, Meta has established a dedicated team tasked with developing strategies to ensure the integrity of the election process across its platforms. This initiative draws on extensive experience gathered from analyzing over 200 election processes worldwide since 2016, as well as adhering to the regulations outlined in the Digital Services Act.
Since 2016, Meta has invested more than $20 billion in the safety and security of its users. This substantial investment has enabled the company to quadruple its global security team, which now comprises approximately 40,000 individuals. Among them, 15,000 content reviewers are responsible for monitoring posts on Facebook and Instagram in over 80 languages, including Polish.
Over the past nine years, Meta has introduced leading tools aimed at enhancing the transparency of advertisements related to social issues, elections, and politics. Additionally, the company has developed comprehensive policies to prevent interference in the electoral process and electoral fraud. Specialized teams have also been established to combat misinformation initiatives. Furthermore, steps have been taken to mitigate risks associated with generative artificial intelligence, including threats such as deepfakes and AI-driven disinformation campaigns. However, experiences from numerous elections in 2024 have shown that such threats did not pose a significant issue on Meta’s platforms.
As the elections near, Meta plans to launch the Elections Operations Center for Poland. This center will bring together experts from various departments within the company, including threat analysis, data analysis, engineering, research, operations, content policy, and law. Their primary role will be to identify potential threats and implement appropriate countermeasures within Meta’s applications and technologies.
### Key Focus Areas
Meta’s teams will concentrate their efforts on three critical areas:
#### Close Cooperation with Polish Authorities
It is crucial to emphasize that no single entity can independently guarantee the fairness of elections. In today’s global landscape, election protection has become a collective challenge that necessitates collaboration and coordination between social media platforms, electoral bodies, and civil society. In preparation for the elections, Meta is maintaining close contact with Polish authorities to coordinate efforts. The company has established special communication channels with key institutions to facilitate the regular exchange of information about potential threats, including attempts to influence elections from both within and outside Poland.
Similarly, to its approach in other countries, Meta has organized a series of training sessions in Poland for government organizations, all political parties, electoral institutions, and non-governmental organizations. These sessions are designed to familiarize participants with Meta’s policies and products, best practices for using the platforms, and security measures such as two-factor authentication. Meta representatives have also engaged in numerous meetings with the Ministry of Digital Affairs and law enforcement agencies. Additionally, workshops have been organized as part of the Digital Awareness Day for NGOs, focusing on best practices for using Meta’s tools.
Before and on election day, Meta will ensure that all users in Poland have easy access to election information by displaying notifications in their Facebook and Instagram newsfeeds that direct them to the official presidential election website.
Meta will also implement enhanced protection measures for election candidates to enable them to respond to the increasingly common occurrences of attacks and aggressive behavior faced by politicians. This will include safeguarding candidates’ accounts and actively identifying and removing instances of harassment on the platform. All these resources are available in Meta’s Candidate Election Center.
#### Counteracting Public Opinion Manipulation
Public opinion manipulation is defined as coordinated efforts aimed at influencing or disrupting public debate to achieve a strategic goal. These actions can take various forms, from covert campaigns relying on networks of fake accounts that mislead about the identity of those behind them to overt propaganda activities conducted in countries where media is state-controlled.
To counter covert attempts to manipulate public opinion on its platforms, Meta has established specialized global teams that combat what is referred to as coordinated inauthentic behavior. Since 2017, the company has dismantled over 200 such networks, as detailed in its threat reports.
#### Leading Industry Tools for Advertisement Transparency
Meta is a leader in the industry when it comes to the transparency of advertisements related to social issues, elections, and politics. Advertisers wishing to display such ads on Meta platforms must undergo a verification process to confirm their identity and residence in Poland. Once verified, their ads will feature a “Paid for by” label indicating the entity responsible for the advertisement. All these ads are archived in Meta’s Ad Library for seven years, allowing anyone to check the exact content being displayed, the costs associated with their dissemination, and details about targeting.
For more information on how Meta approaches election-related matters, you can visit their Election Principles and Safeguards page.
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