Meta’s Nick Clegg Responds to BFMI Open Letter
On 26 May, Nicholas Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta, responded to BFMI’s Open Letter calling on Meta to take urgent steps to prevent abuse of their platforms and tackle the spread of disinformation in the Western Balkans.
Mr Clegg writes: “Keeping our users well informed and fighting disinformation, influence operations, and misinformation is a key priority for Meta. We agree that a well-informed society is the backbone of a well-functioning democracy. We fully acknowledge our role in keeping our users safe and well informed, be it in Serbia, the West Balkans or elsewhere in the world.”
The response sets out Meta’s existing policies for tackling misinformation, disinformation, and supporting independent journalism and fair and free elections. It details how these policies are often enacted through working with respected local partners. Furthermore, it highlights the policies which have been strengthened since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The full response can be read here.
These are all important steps taken to protect the information environment on Meta platforms and BFMI would like to thank Mr Clegg and Meta for taking the time to respond to the concerns highlighted in our letter and report, ‘Social Media and the Information War in the Balkans’.
However, more must still be done. Labeling state-controlled media is one area where Meta is clearly falling short in the Balkans. Mr Clegg writes that since 2020, Meta has applied labels to “State-controlled media on Facebook globally, so people know where this information comes from.” But, as our report shows, this policy is limited in scope and application in the Balkans. Current policies need to be applied properly throughout the Balkans and Facebook should immediately assess whether to label RTS in Serbia and RTRS and SRNA in Republika Srpska as state-controlled outlets under its existing policy. Labeling policies should also be expanded to include outlets linked to state actors that publish misinformation, disinformation and propaganda.
Meta’s platform Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform in the Balkans. Meta, therefore, has an important responsibility to ensure its platforms support a healthy information environment and does everything it can to prevent the spread of misinformation and disinformation.
BFMI’s open letter included the following recommendations:
Expand existing policies for labeling state-controlled or state-affiliated outlets
Introduce greater sanctions for outlets found to repeatedly violate content policies and publish disinformation
Expand the presence of social media companies in the Balkans
Escalate efforts to identify and remove troll and bot accounts
Develop algorithms that promote media outlets with high journalistic and ethical standards
Strengthen capacity to deal with information crises should the security situation deteriorate further in the Western Balkans
We hope that by continuing our constructive dialogue with Meta these recommendations will be addressed and Meta’s role in supporting independent media and democracy in the Balkans will be strengthened.
