Facebook joined the fight the spread of political misinformation by coming up with a “War Room”. Designed to halt and slow the rampant abuse of Facebook to disseminate false rumours or fake news, the company invited press members to view the War Room at their Menlo Park headquarters. Photos of the War Room show a small meeting room filled with data analysts with monitors on the walls, constantly scrolling with data. The doors were marked with bold red letters that said, “War Room”.

The invitation for the press to see the War Room, was likely as a publicity stunt to show that Facebook is committed to combating the spread of malicious data. The corporation has been facing scrutiny over its role in amplifying untrue political content, so it has been eager to show publicly that it is serious about these allegations.

This is in light with the approaching midterm elections for the United States in November and the presidential elections in 2020. With that, corporation executives have laid out their plans, which include making political advertising more transparent, reducing the distribution of fake news and preventing spam or fake accounts, among others. Facebook took positive steps to ban misinformation related to voter suppression, reducing messages that promoted long lines or voter requirements.

Asked at the briefing what ways Facebook may be falling short in its efforts, Katie Harbath, director of global politics and government outreach, responded: “This is really going to be a constant arms race. This is our new normal. Bad actors are going to keep trying to get more sophisticated in what they are doing, and we’re going to have to keep getting more sophisticated in trying to catch them.”

We are glad that Facebook has taken an active interest in reducing the spread of fake news, however, this may just be a first step in the long fight against nefarious perpetrators.