The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) have announced that they’ve reached an agreement with Google, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to fight disinformation or fake news during the local government elections (LGE) and beyond.
South Africans go to the polls on 1 November.
Commission vice chairperson Janet Love says in a statement that the spreading of disinformation has the potential to undermine the credibility of elections.
The Commission and MMA will use a system called Real411 in their combined efforts to deal with disinformation and will also use software called Padre to identify and eliminate disinformation in adverts.
Google, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok’s regional offices have all committed to helping counter disinformation and have acknowledged the importance of accurate information in the democratic process.
