At Facebook, a year-long exercise to ensure free and fair polls in India

Facebook on Monday said it had been working for over a year to ensure free and fair elections in India, as well as around the world.

Work was “done across dozens of teams, both in India and around the globe, and began more than 18 months ago with a detailed planning and risk assessment across our platforms. The findings allowed us to concentrate our work on key areas, including blocking and removing fake accounts; fighting the spread of misinformation; stopping abuse by domestic actors; spotting attempts at foreign meddling; and taking action against inauthentic coordinated campaigns,” said Faceb­ook’s Managing Director and Vice-President, India, Ajit Mohan, in a Facebook blog.

As part of its work with the Election Comm­ission (EC), Mohan said Facebook had created a training process to help policymakers, candidates and their staff improve their cybersecurity and awareness for how their accounts could be hacked or abused.