Facebook, Google ramp up efforts to curb interference in U.S. polls

In a bid to protect election integrity, Facebook and Google announced new updates that will help voters access authoritative information about the election and connect them to accurate and easy-to-find information about voting ahead of the November polls.

San Francisco: The social network giant that earlier faced flak for failing to keep foreign players with malicious intentions away from its platform during the 2016 US presidential election said that a new "Voting Information Center" will be available on Facebook and Instagram. To know more, click on the video below:

"It is also important that we help protect the integrity of our elections. With many states making changes to the voting process because of the pandemic, the center is also designed to help people navigate a confusing election process," Naomi Gleit, Facebook's Vice President of Product and Social Impact, wrote in a blog post.

Facebook, Google ramp up efforts to curb interference in U.S. polls

Last month, the social networking giant started adding labels to Facebook posts from federal politicians discussing voting so that people have easy access to the latest official election information.

"We are rolling out these labels to apply to posts on voting in the US on Facebook and Instagram," Gleit said.

As per a tweet by Google, it has launched two features in Google Search with detailed information about how to register and how to vote.

• Today we're adding new features to Google Search in the US to help you quickly find live TV content right from your phone—from MLB and NBA games to live TV shows and movies → https://t.co/Pxn0UNkz8H pic.twitter.com/0nqGPYEPcQ

  — Google (@Google) August 13, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

Today we're adding new features to Google Search in the US to help you quickly find live TV content right from your phone—from MLB and NBA games to live TV shows and movies → https://t.co/Pxn0UNkz8H pic.twitter.com/0nqGPYEPcQ

— Google (@Google) August 13, 2020 ">

Today we're adding new features to Google Search in the US to help you quickly find live TV content right from your phone—from MLB and NBA games to live TV shows and movies → https://t.co/Pxn0UNkz8H pic.twitter.com/0nqGPYEPcQ

— Google (@Google) August 13, 2020

Facebook, Google ramp up efforts to curb interference in U.S. polls

Google said it is making a very significant investment in election security. "Our Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and our Trust and Safety teams work together to identify and prevent government-backed attacks against Google and our users," said the company.

Google new updates to help voters of U.S. Courtesy : Google

Additionally, to help people involved in campaigns, the company recently launched enhanced security for Google accounts to complement its Advanced Protection Programme, offering additional safeguards for G Suite and Gmail users during the election season.

People can easily self-nominate to receive additional security checks for active threats and suspicious activity, like hacking and phishing.

"We're also updating our Political Ads Transparency Report to include more information about the election ads that run on our platform, new ways to sort campaign spending, and more frequent updates — giving people a detailed insight into the political ads that run on Google and YouTube," the company noted.

(Inputs from IANS)