Tag: election
Another Apple Store union election is brewing
Workers at the Penn Square Apple Store in Oklahoma City have filed with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election, becoming the third US location to have done so. According to a press release, over 70 percent of the store’s salespeople, genius admins, technicians, creatives, and operations specialists, have signed cards to say they’re interested in being represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
The NLRB’s bar for a sufficient showing of interest for an election is 30 percent of workers signing union cards.
The filing was reported previously by Bloomberg, and the outlet writes that Michael Forsythe, an employee and organizer at the Oklahoma City store, said workers are looking for “more transparency…
YouTube is still battling 2020 election misinformation as it prepares for the midterms
YouTube and Google are the latest platforms to share more about how they are preparing for the upcoming midterm elections, and the flood of misinformation that will come with it.
For YouTube, much of that strategy hinges on continuing to counter misinformation about the 2020 presidential election. The company’s election misinformation policies already prohibit videos that allege “widespread fraud, errors, or glitches” occurred in any previous presidential election. In a new blog post about its preparations for the midterms, the company says it’s already removed “a number of videos related to the midterms” for breaking these rules, and that other channels have been temporarily suspended for videos related to the upcoming midterms.
The update comes as YouTube continues to face scrutiny for its handling of the 2020 election, and whether its recommendations pushed some people toward election fraud videos. (Of note, the Journal of Online Trust and Safety published a study on the topic today.)
In addition to taking down videos, YouTube also says it will launch “an educational media literacy campaign” aimed at educating viewers about “manipulation tactics used to spread misinformation.” The campaign will launch in the United States first, and will cover topics like “using emotional language” and “cherry picking information,” according to the company.
And Both Google and YouTube will promote authoritative election information in their services, including in search results. Before the midterms, YouTube will link to information about how to vote, and on Election day, videos related to the midterms will link to “timely context around election results.” Similarly, Google will surface election results directly in search, which it has done in previous elections as well.
The company is also trying to make it easier to find details about local and regional races. Beginning in “the coming weeks,” Google will highlight local news sources from different states in election-related searches.
Amazon Labor Union Files for Election at Upstate New York Warehouse – CNET
NGO says Facebook failed to detect misinformation in Brazilian election ads
Less than two months before Brazil’s 2022 election, a report from international NGO Global Witness found Facebook parent company Meta “appallingly” failed to detect false political ads. The organization tested Facebook’s ability to catch election-related misinformation by submitting 10 ads.
Five of the advertisements featured blatantly false information about the election. For instance, some mentioned the wrong election date and methods citizens could use to cast their votes. The other five ads sought to discredit Brazil’s electoral process, including the electronic voting system the country has used since 1996. Of the 10 ads, Facebook only rejected one initially but later approved it without any further action from Global Witness.
In addition to their content, the ads had other red flags Global Witness contends Meta should have caught. To start, the non-profit did not verify the account it used to submit the advertisements through the company’s ad authorizations process. “This is a safeguard that Meta has in place to prevent election interference, but we were easily able to bypass this,” Global Witness said.
Additionally, the organization submitted the ads from London and Nairobi. In doing so, it did not need to use a VPN or local payment system to mask its identity. Moreover, the ads did not feature a “paid for by” disclaimer, which Meta notes all “social issue” advertisements in Brazil must include by June 22, 2022.
“What’s quite clear from the results of this investigation and others is that their content moderation capabilities and the integrity systems that they deploy in order to mitigate some of the risk during election periods, it’s just not working,” Jon Lloyd, senior advisor at Global Witness, told The Associated Press.
Meta did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. A Meta spokesperson told The Associated Press it has “prepared extensively” for Brazil’s upcoming election. “We’ve launched tools that promote reliable information and label election-related posts, established a direct channel for the Superior Electoral Court (Brazil’s electoral authority) to send us potentially-harmful content for review, and continue closely collaborating with Brazilian authorities and researchers,” the company said.
This isn’t the first time Global Witness has found Facebook’s election safeguards wanting. Earlier this year, the non-profit conducted a similar investigation ahead of Kenya’s recent election and reached many of the same conclusions. Then, as now, Global Witness called on Meta to strengthen and increase its content moderation and integrity systems.