PRETORIA - The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has partnered with major technology companies to combat fake news ahead of the 4 November Local Government Elections.
Google, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and Moxii Africa are expected to sign a cooperation agreement aimed at tackling disinformation and protecting the integrity of the elections.
Google representative Sipho Mtombeni said that, as voters increasingly turn to online platforms to access election information, technology companies have a responsibility to help ensure they receive reliable, high-quality content.
He said this includes connecting users with trustworthy information while providing strong protection and security for election campaigns and officials.
Mtombeni also highlighted growing concerns about artificial intelligence-generated content.
He said Google was working to help users distinguish between authentic and AI-generated material through a tool called SynthID.
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Meta representative Thabo Makenete said the company had several measures in place to protect election integrity, including transparency initiatives, efforts to combat misinformation and fact-checking partnerships.
“As the framework is voluntary, we still take it very seriously that we have to live up to the requirements of ensuring that the elections are safe, to ensure that people, when they engage on our platforms, they have to not spread misinformation,” Makenete said.
Moxii Africa director William Bird said threats to election integrity extended beyond misinformation, pointing to individuals, entities and groups he claimed were seeking to undermine democracy and the electoral process.
“And these are very serious things,” Bird said, commending the technology companies participating in the IEC’s cooperation framework to tackle disinformation and protect the integrity of the polls.