The Fijian Elections Office raised concerns in relation to persons using fake identities and fake pages “to harass every sector of the society” in a meeting with executives of Facebook in Australia this week as part of works to combat misinformation ahead of Fiji’s 2022 General Elections
In a statement, the FEO says the meeting with the Australian branch of FB’s parent company Meta in Sydney yesterday is part of initiatives the local election authority has taken on to counter “such unethical practices whether it is a candidate, political party or anonymous individuals hiding behind fake profiles in Fiji.”
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem said the meeting was an opportune time as well for the FEO to present various initiatives, opportunities, and issues arising out of the social media site which is one of the most used platforms in Fiji.
“We took this opportunity to also discuss with Facebook the training and security measures for the 2022 General Election and it was a very useful first meeting and we look forward to more meetings in the future,” Saneem said.
“It was also an opportunity for the Fijian Election Management Body, to put critical matters of context to Facebook executives so that they have a better understanding of the entire process and we had emphasized to Facebook that it needs to play a greater role in the combating of disinformation and misinformation during the general election, which was received positively by the social media giant.”
Training for all political parties on the effective use of the platform in the 2022 GE is also being considered by FEO in collaboration with FB.
Saneem was accompanied by FEO’s Manager Public Relations Neelam Prasad and Coordinator for the Centre for Credible Election Information Ziyad Parvez.
Meanwhile, the earliest date for the issuance of the writ for the 2022 GE is tomorrow, 26 May.
Photo: FEO
