Facebook announced that it will be setting up two new regional operations centres based out of its Singapore and Dublin offices.
The two centres will focus on monitoring election-related content, said a report by Reuters. An independent content oversight board will also be established, with the power to overturn company decisions on user posts.
The 40-member board will select cases to review, as Facebook seeks to crack down on harassment, incitement of violence and the spread of false information without infringing freedom of speech.
The company's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said that such decisions should not be made by Facebook. They need to be deferred to an independent body of technology and human rights experts "free of commercial influences".
Meanwhile, the teams in Singapore and Dublin "will add a layer of defences against fake news, hate speech and voter suppression," Facebook added in a press statement on Monday, January 28.
Mr Nick Clegg, Facebook's recently appointed head of global affairs, also announced at a news conference in Brussels that new tools will be launched in late March 2019 to help protect the integrity of European Union elections due to be held this spring.
The transparency tools for electoral ads will debut in India in February before its elections, but will be expanded globally before the end of June. The new tools are similar to those adopted for the US mid-term elections, said Mr Clegg said.
All political ads will stored in a publicly searchable library for up to seven years. Information available include the amount of money spent and the number of impressions displayed, who paid for them and the demographics of those who saw them.
The tools will also cover “issue ads” – those which do not explicitly back one candidate or political party but which focus on highly politicised topics like immigration.
