Facebook Implements New Policy to Counter International Influence of Elections

AP

Social media platform tightens policies to combat political misinformation

Facebook said on Wednesday, April 22, that it will now label posts from popular accounts with their geographic origin—in an effort to curb political misinformation. This is meant to target foreign-based pages that mimic legitimate groups and political parties.

This policy will apply to popular pages about elections, entertainment and other topics and appear on every post across the Facebook and Instagram platforms.  An example of this would be an Instagram account that targets U.S. voters but is based in brazil will be labeled “Based in Brazil” and users will be able to find out more information about the account.

This new label will start by targeting pages based outside of the U.S. that reach a large number of people within the U.S. The labels also add a new layer of information, one users won’t have to click to find.

This decision comes as Facebook’s latest attempt to combat election-related misinformation. Russia and other countries have been using social media to try and influence political discourse in the U.S. by pretending to be local interest groups.

As an example, last fall Facebook removed dozens of pages and accounts that purported to be Americans focused on U.S. politics while the pages actually originated in Iran and Russia.

North Korean Leader Under Suspicion of Being Ill

Media has been speculating that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be unwell, while silence from the country has only generated more worry about who is next in line to run the nuclear-armed country.

The first questions of Kim’s health came after he skipped an April 15 commemoration of the 108th birthday of his grandfather, North Korea’s founder. It is the country’s most important event and Kim has not missed it since inheriting power from his father in late 2011.

While North Korean state media said that Kim sent a message to Syria’s president thanking him for greetings on his grandfather’s birthday, no other activity or unusual developments have been reported.

Kim has been out of the public eye for extended periods of time in the past and North Korea does not allow for outsiders to easily determine if he might be incapacitated. If Kim continues to miss upcoming public events, questions about the country’s political future will continue to grow.

Kim’s younger sister, senior ruling party official Kim Yo Jong, is the most likely candidate to step in if something is to happen to her brother. Believed to be in her early 30s, Kim Yo Jong is in charge of North Korea’s propaganda affairs. She has frequently appeared with her brother at public activities and accompanied him on his summit with President Donald Trump in recent years.

Tensions are Renewed Between Iran and Trump 

Tensions between Washington and Tehran flared up once again as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard conducted a space launch that could potentially advance the country’s long-range missile program. In response, President Donald Trump threatened to destroy any Iranian gunboats that harass Navy ships.

Experts describe the launch to be a secret military space program that could accelerate Iran’s ballistic missile development, a major cause of criticism. While it is too early to know whether an operational Iranian satellite was successfully launched into orbit, Iran has been accused of violating U.N. resolutions.

Vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called Wednesday's space launch another example of Iranian malign behavior.

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Navy reported that 11 Iranian naval guard boats had carried out “dangerous and harassing approaches” to American Navy and Coast Guard vessels in the Persian Gulf. Americans were able to warn off the Iranian boats through nonlethal methods.

Conflict between Iran and the U.S. has escalated after the Trump administration withdrew from the international nuclear deal between various world powers in 2018 and reimposed sanctions instead.

Tensions grew when U.S. forces killed Iran’s most powerful general, Qassem Soleimani in January. In response, Iran launched a ballistic missile attacked on a base in western Iraq where U.S. troops were present.

The Associate Press contributed reporting.