Meta Prepares For Upcoming US Elections By Including Threads Content In Its Fact-Checking Program

The countdown to the US Presidential elections has begun and tech giant Meta is making sure it’s well prepared beforehand.

Facebook’s parent firm is pulling out all the stops to ensure it can handle all the curveballs linked to misinformation that could arise from all directions. That means ensuring its fact-checking system is well in place and can cover content from Threads along the way too.

The news comes after the app reported greater usage after a sudden and shocking stump, despite Threads getting massive attention after its record-breaking launch.

Thanks to reports from tech giant Meta, we are hearing more about how its fact-checking program that entails third-party partners would swing into place starting the early part of 2023 and that’s when it could go through and review posts on the Threads app that it might find to misleading.

At the moment, Meta claims the fact checker rates content as false through Facebook and Instagram. But it does feel the need now to include posts from Threads as currently, it’s just reviewing content that’s similar to Threads but not found on the app. This needs to change quickly, it added and that’s why they’re extending the program to include the latest app too.

The huge rise in Threads’ usage is a major and crucial step as Meta confirmed that the platform hit 100 million users recently. And each week, that figure continues to rise to more alarming rates, citing user intrigue in the platform. This is not surprising considering the great number of features announced that users have been hoping for so long.

Similarly, the app has finally been rolled out in the EU after a long time coming, giving the user base a further boost in that part of the world. Previously, such individuals could only use the app by logging in via VPN but now, that’s not the case.

With growing figures comes growing concerns for misinformation spread and before that gets wildly out of control during the upcoming US elections, Meta is gearing up beforehand to ensure a smooth sailing process throughout its leading apps out in the market today.

A lot of engagement on Threads has been through a host of sports communities. So many NBA fans for example like to engage in posts or discussions linked to the theme, especially as the new season gets underway and gives rise to more engagement within that Threads ecosystem.

While Meta says it’s happy to see a greater rise in engagement and users, the worries and risks of harm are on the rise. This inverse relationship sets the tech giant up for failure and to avoid that, it’s forced to pull off such stops, it added.

Other than that, we’re hearing more about how users on Threads will get greater control in terms of the figure for sensitive content being exposed on the platform.

So many users on Instagram and Facebook were getting more control in this regard and that gave them the chance to determine how sensitive or fact-checked the data that they were currently viewing. Now, with that power extended to Threads, users can select if they wish to witness default-level scrutiny on fact-checkers across the Feed. In case they wish to witness less sensitive content through Instagram, this setting would similarly be applied to Threads as well.

It wouldn’t be wrong to mention the debate for fact-checking continues to be a controversial one and that’s especially true when allegations are on the rise in terms of apps carrying out fact-checking as a source of government censorship to determine narratives and restrict discussions on some things.