Facebook To Use Fact-Check Warnings Ahead Of Federal Election

An army of fact checkers will monitor social media posts about the upcoming election which may be deemed misleading.

Facebook is hiring an abundance of new staff to safeguard Australian users from foreign political interference.

As part of a 'Meta' campaign, Instagram will also be monitored with a key focus on election spam sites while preventing hackers from accessing accounts of the candidates.

As the federal election nears, Meta Australia’s head of public policy, Josh Machin said the group has been well-prepared with plans to combat abuse of election processes.

"This is by far the most compressive package of election integrity measures we have ever had in Australia,” Machin said.

"We’ve been working incredibly closely for some time, with Australian government security agencies, law enforcement, and a group that the government has convened, called the election integrity assurance task force, in order to make sure that we’re fully across potential threats in the context of the election."

Meta's third party fact-checking program will work with media outlets to review content at speed during a busy period in Australian politics.

If content is deemed to be false or misleading, Meda will automatically reduce distribution and makes note to those who share or interact with the post.

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