LHC sent notification to PTA and ECP about Facebook’s influence on elections. Pakistan is going to have general elections in July, 2018 and authorities are making sure that nothing can influence it, particularly social media. In this regard, LHC takes notice of an appeal that urges Mark Zuckerberg to take out fake news from Facebook before the general elections in Pakistan.
Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh has notified the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to keep in check upon Facebook’s influence on upcoming elections, while listening to a petition on Facebook’s influence on general elections.
Not to know, elections are scheduled to be held on 25th of July and Lahore High Court advised PTA to ensure that social media is not used to spread any kind propaganda or fake news.
Shahid Jamal, the petitioner, requested the court to urge media regulatory bodies to contact Mark Zuckerberg, as some accounts are being used for false advertisement and to control public content. He wants Facebook’s co-founder and CEO to remove fake accounts problem before July 25th. He said,
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“The interim federal government, ECP and PTA should also be directed to regulate social media to ensure the democratic process is not harmed in the upcoming general elections”
The notice issued by LHC makes sense as Facebook has been widely used over the years to influence public opinions. This does not just happen locally, Russian agencies have been found to create numerous fake accounts to post fake news in order to get their desired electoral candidate to win.
Facebook was also involved in another similar and famous scandal in the USA where it was suggested that platform was used to control and influence elections in favor of President Donald Trump.
As we mentioned in our previous article that Mark Zuckerberg has already pointed out that the company is aware of “important elections” in Pakistan, and other countries.
In this regard, Zuckerberg have said that the social network has already implement advanced AI to deal with the situation. The new method automatically finds fake accounts and news, and keenly removes it to avoid propaganda.
However, despite implementing this new AI solution, as there are so many accounts and so much going on Facebook, the impact hasn’t been that wide.
For social media users, we advise you to avoid relying on Facebook or other social networks for any political news about general elections.
