Facebook was encountering election interference content as far back as 2006, some 10 years before Mark Zuckerberg first acknowledged the issue, the platform’s former head of global public policy has claimed.
Speaking at Sky News’ Big Ideas Live event, where experts and industry leaders discussed the biggest science and technology issues of our times, Paul Kelly said staff had to deal with it “all the time”.
“We saw the initial aspects of misinformation campaigns being built around elections as early as 2006 and in 2008,” Mr Kelly revealed at a panel on the future of big tech companies.
“We actually did a number of projects to try to increase civic engagement on the platform at that time. And we certainly saw people try to use misinformation to influence elections early on at that phase.”
Facebook founder Zuckerberg admitted in 2017 that he should have taken concerns about fake news leading up to the 2016 presidential election, when Donald Trump won the race to the White House, more seriously.
He had dismissed the notion as “crazy”, but then wrote in a public post in September 2017: “Calling that crazy was dismissive and I regret it.
More on Facebook
Related Topics:
“This is too important an issue to be dismissive.”
Mr Kelly was responding to an audience member’s question about the link between social media and increased divisiveness in US politics and elsewhere.
Advertisement
Challenged by Sky News’ technology correspondent Rowland Manthorpe about the gap between Facebook tackling misinformation and Zuckerberg acknowledging the issue, Mr Kelly said “the scale changed”.
“I had left by then,” he stressed.
“But we definitely had seen some attempts at electoral misinformation in the earlier races.”
A spokesperson for Facebook’s parent company Meta said it had “developed a comprehensive approach to how elections play out on our platform” – “reflecting years of work” and “billions of dollars in investments”.
They added that they had “dedicated teams working on elections”, including this month’s US midterms.
“Meta has hundreds of people working across more than 40 teams to combat election and voter interference, fight misinformation and find and remove violating content and accounts,” they said.
“We’ve also developed stronger policies to stop claims of delegitimisation or fraud on our services.”
Former US president Joe Biden has prostate cancer, his office has said.
The statement said Mr Biden, who left the White House in January, is reviewing options for treatment with his physicians.
It read: “Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms.
“On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterised by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.
“The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
Image: File pic: Reuters
According to Cancer Research UK, a Gleason score of 9 means the cancerous cells “look very abnormal” and the disease is “likely to grow quickly”.
More on Cancer
Related Topics:
A source familiar with Mr Biden and his family’s thinking has told Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, that the former president is considering “multiple treatment options” – including hormone treatment for the cancer.
They added he is at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, and that as of now, it is unclear where the former president will be treated.
Mr Biden, 82, was the oldest person to ever serve as president, with concerns about his health raised regularly during his campaign for re-election last year.
A Mexican navy ship has hit the Brooklyn Bridge during a promotional tour in New York City.
The New York Fire Department said authorities were responding to injuries but had no details about how many people might have been hurt or whether they were on the vessel or on the bridge.
Sky’s US partner network NBC News reports that at least three people were seriously injured in the incident.
The Mexican navy said in a post on X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in the accident, which has prevented it from continuing its voyage.
Eyewitness video of the collision posted online showed the mast of the ship, which was flying a large Mexican flag, scraping the underneath of the bridge.
Image: Pic: AP
The vessel then drifted toward the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.
The Mexican navy said the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.
More on New York City
Related Topics:
The Cuauhtemoc is about 297ft long and 40ft wide, according to the Mexican navy. It sailed for the first time in 1982.
Image: Pic: AP
Each year, it sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training.
It left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on 6 April with 277 people onboard, the navy said at the time.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
One person has died in a bomb explosion near a reproductive health clinic in California, authorities have said.
The incident took place in Palm Springs, a city two hours east of Los Angeles, and is being investigated as a possible car explosion.
The city’s mayor Ron DeHarte said one person died in the blast, adding that the bomb was “either in or near” a vehicle. The deceased’s identity is not known, Palm Springs police said.
Dr Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers clinic, told the Associated Press his facility was damaged but all staff were safe and accounted for.
The explosion damaged the office space where the practice conducts patient consultations, but the IVF lab and stored embryos were unharmed, he added.
“I really have no clue what happened,” he said. “Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.”
Image: Debris covers the ground after the explosion. Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP
In a statement posted on Facebook the clinic said it was “heartbroken” to learn someone died in the explosion and added: “Our deepest condolences go out to the individuals and families affected.”
It continued: “Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is.
“In the face of this tragedy, we remain committed to creating hope – because we believe that healing begins with community, compassion, and care.
The clinic will be fully operational on Monday, it added.
“This moment has shaken us – but it has not stopped us. We will continue to serve with strength, love, and the hope that brings new life into the world,” the statement concluded.
Image: Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP
The Palm Springs city government said in a post on Facebook that the explosion happened on North Indian Canyon Drive, near East Tachevah Drive, before 11am local time (6pm GMT).
A burned-out car can be seen in a parking lot behind the building in aerial footage.
The blast caved in the clinic’s roof and blew debris across four lanes of the road.
Another person said he was inside a cannabis dispensary nearby when he felt a massive explosion.
Nima Tabrizi said: “The building just shook, and we go outside and there’s massive cloud smoke.”
Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are travelling to the scene to help assess what happened.
California governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the explosion, his press office said.