Facebook says it will crack down on fake news ahead of Taiwan election

Social media giant says it will step up efforts to counter disinformation and state-backed influence operations before island goes to polls in January

Taiwanese authorities say 30 million cyberattacks, many linked to the Chinese mainland, are recorded each month

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The social media giant said it would step up its efforts to counter misleading or false information. Photo: AP

Published: 8:30pm, 5 Nov 2019Updated: 10:53pm, 5 Nov 2019

Facebook said on Tuesday that it would step up efforts to counter disinformation and state-backed influence operations ahead of the Taiwanese presidential election in January.

The authorities on the self-ruled island have reported an average of 30 million cross-border cyberattacks each month this year, with a sizeable number from the Chinese mainland suspected of trying to affect the result of the election.

Earlier this year Facebook, along with other tech giants such as Twitter and Google, banned a number of pages and accounts that it said were linked to the Beijing government and being used to spread its message about the Hong Kong protests.

Starting in mid-November, when the island’s presidential campaign officially gets under way, Facebook’s 35,000 worldwide staff will step up their efforts to check content, facts, advertising and security, executives from the tech giant said.

“Protecting the election is the major priority of the company,” Katie Harbath, Facebook’s public policy director and global elections lead, told a teleconference at Facebook’s Taipei office on Tuesday.