Facebook sets up ‘war room’ vs trolls
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA— Social media giant Facebook has established a “war room” that serves as the nerve center of around 20,000 people around the world who will be dedicated to fighting online trolls who spread disinformation. The war room is initially focusing on Brazil’s presidential runoff on Oct. 28 and the US midterm elections on Nov. 6, and will likely spread to more countries.—
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA— In an otherwise innocuous part of Facebook’s expansive Silicon Valley campus, a locked door bears a taped-on sign that reads “War Room.”
Behind the door lies a nerve center, with dozens of employees, that the social network set up to combat fake accounts and bogus news stories ahead of upcoming elections.
Common problem
On the walls are posters of the sort Facebook frequently uses to caution or exhort its employees. One reads, “Nothing at Facebook is somebody else’s problem.”
That motto might seem ironic because the war room was created to counter threats that almost no one at the company, least of all cofounder Mark Zuckerberg, took seriously just two years ago.
Days after President Donald Trump’s surprise victory, Facebook dismissed claims that the outcome was influenced by fake news on Facebook, but the attitude changed as criticism of the company mounted in Congress and elsewhere.
Social network in repair
The war room is a major part of Facebook’s ongoing repairs and draws upon the artificial intelligence system that Facebook has been using to identify “inauthentic” posts and user behavior.
Facebook provided a tightly controlled glimpse at its war room to The Associated Press and other media ahead of the second round of presidential elections in Brazil on Oct. 28 and the US midterm elections on Nov. 6.
“There is no substitute for physical, real-world interaction,” said Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s director of elections and civic engagement.
“The primary thing we have learned is just how effective it is to have people in the same room all together,” he said.
More than 20 different teams now coordinate the efforts of more than 20,000 people—mostly contractors—devoted to blocking fake accounts and fictional news.
As part of the crackdown, Facebook also has hired fact checkers, including The Associated Press, to vet news stories posted on its social network.
Facebook credits its war room and other stepped-up patrolling efforts for booting 1.3 billion fake accounts over the past year and jettisoning hundreds of pages set up by foreign governments and other agents looking to create mischief.
Conflicted
Molly McKew, a self-described “information warfare” researcher for New Media Frontier, believes Facebook is conflicted about blocking some content it already knows is suspect.
“Because they keep people on their platform by sparking an emotional response, so they like the controversial stuff,” McKew said.
Facebook defends its war room as an effective weapon against misinformation, although its efforts are still a work in progress.
Chakrabarti, for instance, acknowledged that some “bugs” prevented Facebook from taking some unspecified actions to prevent manipulation efforts in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election this month.
Initial focus
The war room is currently focused on Brazil’s next round of elections and upcoming US midterms.
Facebook declined to let the media scrutinize the war room because there were “proprietary information” everywhere.
No final decisions have been made, but the war room is likely to become a permanent fixture at Facebook, said Katie Harbath, Facebook’s director of global politics and government outreach.
“It is a constant arms race,” she said. “This is our new normal.”