The 12th parliamentary election is going to be held on January 7. Political parties have become active both online and offline ahead of the elections. Although not participating in the election, the main opposition party BNP is quite active on social media. The government party Awami League is leading in optimal use of online facilities. Groups have become quite active on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube. Basically, since a large part of the country’s more than 10 crore internet users are active on social media, especially Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, the parties have chosen special strategies for them. Google, TikTok and Facebook have already held a meeting with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) regarding this strategy.
According to BTRC data, Bangladesh now has about 13 crore internet users. Of these, more than 5 crore people use Facebook. Meanwhile, an analysis by the independent research institute Information Research Lab (Infolab) says that the followers of the ‘Bangladesh Awami League’ page on Facebook are 34 lakhs, while the media cell of BNP has 25 lakhs. However, the number of posts on BNP’s page is more than that of Awami League in one year. Both parties are using interconnected networks to spread their message.
In such a situation, Facebook, TikTok and Google have taken a strict stance so that parties cannot spread false information, rumors or hatred in the name of propaganda. Among them, according to Facebook’s election campaign policy published on 28th November, 40,000 workers are working to bring order to election campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. (In 2016 alone, the organization invested more than 20 billion dollars in this work.) These activists have begun to take action against those who interfere with the electoral process or vote, or who make provocative statements, or whose statements may cause riots before the content is removed.
Nick Clegg, president of Facebook’s parent company Meta’s global affairs department, said in a blog post, ‘As several important elections coming up, we have decided to update our policies and security measures over time and will be in place in 2024.’ “We want to stop the abuse of our platform during the recent major elections in Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey and Argentina, and next year’s state and territorial elections in the United States,” he added.
From early 2024, advertisers will have to disclose whether they are using AI or other digital technologies when creating ads on a political or social issue. This applies only when the ad contains a photorealistic image or video or realistic sounding audio. The advertiser must make it clear that the image, video or audio is genuine. The advertiser also has to prove that the content has not been tampered with by AI.
In this case, they are considering more issues related to voter registration, candidate eligibility, ballot counting and election results. With more than 40,000 employees and advanced technology, TikTok has worked with local and regional fact-checkers to identify and remove false information about the election. Content that is for review or verification and is marked as false, is restricted to the ‘For You’ feed. In addition, both viewers and creators are warned about misleading content.
TikTok is going to create a hub called ‘Bangladesh Election Center’ on its platform. Through this hub, the users of the platform will be able to know the correct information about the voting process and polling stations and other matters of the election. Where information is provided to users through local language. Similarly, it is also limiting the publication of paid content. Posting to support or oppose a candidate in the election will quickly remove the creator’s post.