With 19 days to the August 9 General Election, Meta has rolled a raft of rules and regulations for Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger to govern political messaging and campaigns on the social media platforms.
In a statement dated July 20, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, launched a range of policies and products that will increase transparency in political advertising, fight voter interference, promote civic engagement and increase digital literacy.
In the rules, Meta will temporarily reduce the distribution of content across Facebook and Instagram from those who have repeatedly or severely violated its policies.
This is aimed at reducing inappropriate content across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
Meta will remove any form of misinformation shared on its platforms to suppress voting rights and spark violence. It will remove photos, videos, and content transferred outside of context depicting ballot stuffing and violence.
Flagged content will have a warning label to inform other social media users that it is fake and misleading.
Social media users who share information disparaging women will also be flagged in the latest policy change.
To protect women political leaders who have been victims of abuse, Meta partnered with working groups such as the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (KEWOPA) and United Nations to defend their safety and ensure a safer experience across its platforms.
Adverts that tend to discredit opponents will also be flagged and removed from Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.
Meta has employed artificial intelligence, human review, and user reports to remove content violating its community standards quickly. So far, over 42,000 content has been removed from its social media platforms in Kenya.
Meta's Ad Transparency tool helps people understand who is behind the political ads they see on Facebook and Instagram.
Advertisers who want to run political ads in Kenya must undergo a verification process to verify their identity and that they live in the country.
Additional checks are run to ensure their compliance with Meta’s policies.
They are also supporting digital literacy and engaging in civic education programmes to understand the scope of the August 9 General Election.
This comes just days after Tiktok introduced an election hub to tame misinformation and disinformation on the social network platform.
TikTok stated that the Kenya Election hub would help Kenyans get verified information regarding the polls, noting that many Kenyans were using the platform.
