The president of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes, yesterday warned of an increase in fake news on social networks during the second-round election campaign and called for “tougher measures” to combat it.
Moraes met Wednesday with representatives of several social networks used in Brazil, such as Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), Twitter, TikTok, Kwai, Linkedin, Google, and YouTube, to define a strategy to detect, prevent and curb the spread of fake news.
“We made great progress in the first round. Thanks to the support of social media and the platforms, we have achieved a good first round, perhaps even better than expected. But we have a second round that is getting worse in this regard. For this reason, the TSE calls for stricter measures against fake news,” he said.
Representatives of the companies participating in the meeting briefed the TSE president on the latest measures to prevent the spread of Fake News on the networks and assured them that this year’s Brazilian elections are a top priority.
In February, the TSE signed an agreement with several social networks to combat the spread of Fake News on those networks. The signatory platforms pledged to develop filters to detect misleading information and remove content from the web that violates the rules.