Meta sets up special team to deal with rampant misinformation around Ukraine

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp's umbrella company Meta says it has taken a number of measures to fight misinformation and to protect its platforms against cyberattacks amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"The situation in Ukraine is devastating. Our teams at Meta have implemented a number of measures to keep our platforms and our users in the region as safe as we can," wrote Meta's VP of global affairs Nick Clegg in a Twitter post Thursday.

According to Clegg, Meta has established a Special Operations Center "staffed by experts and native speakers," that will respond in real time to remove misinformation, hate speech, or content that incites violence on its platforms. Meta will also label content from state-controlled media, as well as content that its fact checkers have rated false.

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Finally, Meta's cybersecurity teams are monitoring for coordinated attempts to abuse its platform, wrote Clegg.

Nathaniel Gleicher, head of security policy at Facebook, also said the platform has launched a new feature in Ukraine, allowing users to lock their profiles in order to provide an extra layer of privacy and security. While their profile is locked, people who aren't these users' friends won't be able to download or share their profile photo, or see posts on their timeline.

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Facebook previously deployed a similar tool in war-affected areas, including in Afghanistan in 2021.

On Thursday, Twitter also posted a set of guidelines that should help protect users from cyberattacks. In the thread, the company explains how to choose a strong password, set up two-factor authentication, or delete your account, among other guides.

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Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been accompanied by a number of cyberattacks, including attacks on the websites of Ukrainian banks and government. The European Union recently formed a rapid-response cybersecurity team to help defend Ukraine from such attacks. There have also been numerous reports of misinformation on Facebook and Twitter, and other platforms.