FB has assembled a small army of fact-checkers for Indian polls. Too small

Election News
One of the operations most vital to Facebook Inc. at this moment is a world away from its Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters, and in more ways than one. Instead of the sprawling roof gardens and upscale cafes packed with Silicon Valley’s latest health fads, this cramped Mumbai office has worn carpets and fading walls lined with exposed electrical ducts.

This is Boom Live, one of seven tiny fact-checking firms at the heart of Facebook’s efforts to rebuild some of its credibility during India’s elections.

The world’s largest democracy represents a key proving ground for Silicon Valley’s battered disinformation amplifier. Based on the early tallies, more than 60 percent of India’s 900 million eligible voters are expected to cast ballots between now and May 19, as the center-left Congress Party tries to seize power from the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party. As in other elections around the world, paid hacks and party zealots are churning out propaganda on Facebook and the company’s WhatsApp messenger, along with Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and other ubiquitous communication channels. Together with Facebook’s automated filters, Boom’s 11 fact-checkers and its similar-size fellow contractors are the front line of the social network’s shield against this sludge.

“In a country largely driven by local and community news, we knew it was critical to have fact-checking partners who could review content across regions and languages,” Ajit Mohan, Facebook’s managing director and vice president in India, wrote in a recent company blog post. He said the assembled fact-checkers cover 8 of India’s 23 official languages and he’s looking to add more.

 The company, which declined to comment for this story, has said that fighting misinformation on its service is a top priority, and that it hands such critical responsibilities over to contractors to help it keep a better-informed watch around the world at all hours. ..Read More

2019 polls: Why govt should aim to create jobs, not offer basic income

General Election 2019:

During election season, which we’re entering in India, everyone likes the idea of giving voters more money. Congress Party President Rahul Gandhi, the de facto opposition leader, says his party will guarantee a minimum income for the country’s poor if victorious. Reports suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government may compete by announcing some form of direct transfer of cash to farmers in the interim budget to be revealed on Friday, which could cost the exchequer nearly $10 billion annually.

While governments everywhere should take care of their most vulnerable citizens, the idea of guaranteeing a basic income is wrong for India right now. Fundamentally, it would only work if two conditions were met. First, large sections of the population would have to be mired in absolute poverty. And second, all other subsidies and welfare programs for them would have to be abolished in order to free up the necessary funds without completely blowing open India’s fiscal deficit, which is already strained.

ALSO READ: Interim Budget 2019: Before polls, govt wants expansionary economic policy


 Neither condition prevails in India. While there’s no recent government estimate of the number of people living below the poverty line, credible research by the Brookings Institution suggests that extreme poverty in India, defined as those living on less than $2 a day, now afflicts only five percent of the population. Granted, that’s still more than 70 million people. But, for the vast majority of Indians, the challenge is no longer subsistence, it’s aspiration. No basic income guarantee will be able to address rising aspirations unless it’s a very large sum of money. At India’s level of national income, providing anything more than a subsistence income would simply be unaffordable...Read More