Journalist Mark Scott, Minister Karina Gould, and ACLU representative Ben Wizner discuss the influence of the internet on democracy, including Facebook's EU election war room and Canada's new law on online political ads. The podcast also explores Ukraine's battle against fake news, highlights the importance of offline conversations, and addresses the risks of targeted political ads.
The establishment of Facebook's European Union election war room raised concerns about the efficiency and efficacy of monitoring online content to protect democracy.
The new law in Canada requiring registration of political ads aimed at targeting voters highlights the need for transparency, while also recognizing the role of civil society and media in providing accurate information.
Deep dives
Facebook's War Room for EU Elections
Facebook set up a dedicated war room to monitor and take down posts with false information, delete fake accounts, and terminate bots violating platform rules to interfere with the EU elections. The war room, consisting mostly of male, mostly white engineers, collectively monitored online content in all 24 EU languages and displayed real-time social media data. However, while the war room was intended to be a pivotal tool for protecting democracy, the reality was more mundane, involving looking at screens and checking for disinformation. The efficiency of Facebook's war room is questioned, as it may be driven by public relations motives and doubts exist about the ability to fully stop the spread of false narratives.
Challenges of Online Political Ads
The ability to target voters precisely using tailored online political ads raises concerns about election integrity and the blurring line between truth and falsehood. Canada passed a new law to address these concerns, requiring all political ads from July 1 until election day to be registered online. While helpful, the law only covers paid ads, leaving room for other methods of targeting voters. Balancing freedom of expression and the need for transparency, the Canadian government acknowledges the importance of informing citizens about political ads' sponsorships, but also recognizes the role of civil society and media in providing accurate information. The effectiveness of targeted online political ads in influencing votes remains uncertain.
Protecting Democracy with Fact-Checking and Social Infrastructure
Efforts to protect democracy involve fact-checking initiatives, such as Stop Fake in Ukraine, fighting against constant Russian disinformation campaigns. Fact-checking projects aim to educate citizens on identifying misinformation and encourage critical thinking. However, civic institutions and social infrastructure play an important role in strengthening democratic culture. Offline spaces, like soccer fields, enable meaningful conversations among diverse individuals, fostering shared values, civic education, and resilience against propaganda. Online platforms like YouTube adjust algorithms to limit harmful content, and individuals are urged to engage in informed discussions, question sources, and go out to vote to celebrate and defend democracy.
Part of celebrating democracy is questioning what influences it. In this episode of IRL, we look at how the internet influences us, our votes, and our systems of government. Is democracy in trouble? Are democratic elections and the internet incompatible?
Politico's Mark Scott takes us into Facebook's European Union election war room. Karina Gould, Canada's Minister for Democratic Institutions, explains why they passed a law governing online political ads. The ACLU's Ben Wizner says our online electoral integrity problem goes well beyond a few bad ads. The team at Stop Fake describes a massive problem that Ukraine faces in telling political news fact from fiction, as well as how they're tackling it. And NYU professor Eric Klinenberg explains how a little bit of offline conversation goes a long way to inoculate an electorate against election interference.
IRL is an original podcast from Firefox. For more on the series go to irlpodcast.org.