Social media platforms rushed to control misinformation in US Census 2020

Facing criticism of experts and pressure from the US agencies, the social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube – recently announced to take action against misinformation being spread on the US Census 2020. As the census data throughout the world are used in electoral planning, policy formulation, budgeting and funding etc. at local, national, regional as well as global level; maintaining the credibility of census would be one of the biggest global challenges in the New Year 2020.

United States of America, the oldest democracy of the world is facing the toughest challenge of the history in maintaining credibility of the Census, the most elaborative data collected directly from inhabitants in its territory. However, the threat of misinformation is not confined only to the US but looming large in almost all the countries which are in the process of conducting their decennial census of the decade from 2020 to 2021.

According to experts, the misinformation campaigns on social media are designed to disseminate anti-census contents through social groups and also by advertisements. The targeted people are asked not to participate in the Census or provide wrong information. Besides, the users are also misguided to approach wrong venues and not to interact with census officials. In some of the social media groups in the US, the residents were falsely cautioned about robbers impersonating as census officials. This prompted the US agencies to get such posts removed from social media.

Facebook to reject anti-census advertisement in the US 2020

In a recent statement, Facebook asserted to clamp down efforts to use its services to interfere with the 2020 census in the US. Furthermore, Facebook has also declared not to accept advertisements designed to spread false information on the Census by calling it 'useless or meaningless'. These initiatives will be strictly implemented by Facebook in the US from 01 January, 2020 till the process of the Census is concluded.

Facebook and other social media platforms are now under pressure from the US agencies to ensure that they are not used for campaigns against the Census. The social media platforms in the US are on the radar of the federal agencies since they failed to control smear campaigns and trolls etc. in the US Presidential Election 2016. Therefore, the implementation of these initiatives by Facebook is being looked at as a test of their preparedness for the upcoming presidential elections 2020. Facebook said it would prohibit advertisements that portray census participation as useless or meaningless or advise people not to participate in the census.' Although Facebook exempts political advertisements from fact-checking, the company said politicians would not be allowed to run advertisements or post content that conflicts with its census policies.

The census, which is conducted every 10 years in the US, is crucial in determining how many representatives a state gets in Congress, federal funding to states for infrastructure development, health care, low-income programs, and other projects.

As the individual data of the Census are highly confidential and released after 72 years in the US, it would be very difficult to know the scale of misappropriation. Presently, the Census of 1940 is in public domain. This time gap of 72 years of Census data used to protect the privacy of the individuals as the use of individual information is completely prohibited. Thought it may have some limitations but since 1790, the Census data have been foundation of planning and policy formulation in the US.

Google forms team to monitor census related content

Google has recently announced to form a team of experts to monitor census related content and video on its platforms and YouTube. It also announced to take down misinformation on census from its social media platforms. The team will focus on 'preventing hoaxes and misleading information'. Google has assured the US agencies to take down the anti-census content and block their access to the users besides not accepting misleading advertisements.

Twitter bans false information on civic events

As the criticism grows, Twitter also announced restrictions on false or misleading information related to Census and participation in other civic events. The company came out with a statement saying its ban on political advertisements will not include advertisements about the census, but such advertisements are subject to restrictions on target audience unless running by government entities. Census experts have expressed concerns for months that Facebook was not taking seriously the misinformation threat and would not be ready to combat it. In March, Reuters reported that the Census Bureau had asked Alphabet Inc's Google, Twitter and Facebook to help it fend off 'fake news' campaigns.

Will social media follow same rule in other countries?

Almost all the countries of the world carry out decennial Census to collect first hand data about the population in their territories by directly approaching their residents.

The census policy adopted by the social media platforms such as – Facebook, Twitter and Google - are specific to their home nation i.e. the USA. Though they claim to be global but their census policies are local. Will they block and take down anti-census content in other countries as well? These are the questions; these social media platforms need to answer to live their promise of non-discriminatory approach.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are the personal views of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)