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

Four crucial messages emerging from the Mayawati-Mulayam kiss-and-make-up

Election News

When Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav recently held a joint rally in Mainpuri in which the Bahujan Samaj Party chief appealed to the public to vote for Mulayam Singh Yadav, it created a new political frame that sough to bury the long-standing animosity between the BSP and the Samajwadi Party.

It may be recalled that the two parties fell out in response to the 'guesthouse scandal' in Lucknow 24 years ago, when the Mayawati outfit's withdrawal of support to the coalition led to the collapse of Mulayam Singh government in 1995.

But in this rally, Mayawati, seated between Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, accorded full respect to the SP patriarch when he came on the dais. The body language of the three leaders reflected good chemistry between these once political rivals. Mulayam Singh Yadav appealed to his supporters to respect Mayawati, stating that she always extended support when it was needed. Mayawati, on her part, appealed strongly to her supporters to vote for Mulayam Singh and the gathbandhan in this election, asserting that he was the real leader of the backward classes, unlike Narendra Modi, whom she called a fake backward.

What are the messages that emerged from this joint rally and what will their impact be in the 2019 elections long-term politics of Uttar Pradesh?


 The first is that Mayawati was trying hard to convince her followers to support Mulayam Singh Yadav and other candidates of the gathbandhan, most of whom are Samajwadi leaders in a region in which the third phase of polling will take place in UP. This domain is typically a Yadav bastion and is famously called ‘Yadav-Land’, although it has a sizeable population of Muslims as well. The constituencies here include Sambhal, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Badaun, Aonla, Bareilly, and Pilibhit. This is an area where the Yadavs own lands on which many Dalits work as landless labourers. It is also a region in which an emergent rural and urban Dalit middle class is lending voice to its weaker brethren...Read More