Meta, the social media company of Facebook, assures Filipinos that it is preparing for the possible influx of misinformation and hate speech ahead of the May 2022 elections.

Aidan Hoy of Meta’s Strategic Response in the Asia Pacific Region and Facebook Philippines Head of Public Policy Clare Amador addressed the public’s concern on the spread of misinformation leading up to the elections.

“Our goal is to make it harder for people to interfere with elections on our family of apps — that is Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp, but also we wanna make it easier for people to have their voices heard,” Hoy said.

Meta said it is rolling out tools to ensure that political advertisements will not come from foreign interference.

“To run these ads, the advertiser must have a valid form of Philippine identification, which mitigates foreign interference. So this means that when people are scrolling through their news feed, they see a political ad, they see a paid-for by a disclaimer on that ad, which when they click through would provide more information about the people behind that particular advertisement,” he added.

Facebook Philippines will also launch a pop-up notification on election day that would direct people to verified Comelec information.

“We expanded Digital Tayo, this is our flagship digital literacy program in the Philippines to include new modules on civic education and media literacy, focusing on community engagement and empowerment in preparation for the elections. We also launched an incubator for news organizations across the country for elections-related advocacy,” Amador said.

“On election day, we will run a reminder that directs users to official Comelec information, and allows them to share with friends that they have quoted,” she added.