Somnath B.’s Post

$MSFT commitment to safeguarding elections from deep fakes and misinformation is a critical step in preserving the integrity of our democratic processes: https://ibn.fm/LHsEk #ElectionIntegrity #DeepFakeDefense #MisinformationMitigation

Vast Voter Data Leaks Cast Shadow Over Indonesia ’s 2024 Presidential Election: Investigators from Resecurity’s HUNTER (HUMINT) warn that Indonesia is increasingly being targeted by cyber-threat actors. Investigators from Resecurity’s HUNTER (HUMINT) have found that Indonesia is increasingly being targeted by cyber-threat actors who have staged attacks that pose significant long-term risks to the integrity of the country’s elections. These findings coincide with the critical and fast-approaching […]

News Update European Commission Unveils Guidelines to Safeguard Election Integrity Online In a bid to fortify the integrity of elections in the digital sphere, the European Commission has unveiled comprehensive guidelines directed at Very Large Online Platforms and Search Engines. These guidelines are designed to address systemic risks online that could compromise the fairness and transparency of electoral processes, with a particular focus on the upcoming European Parliament elections slated for June 2024. Formulated under the Digital Services Act (DSA), these guidelines mandate platforms with over 45 million active users in the EU to adopt measures aimed at mitigating risks associated with electoral processes while upholding fundamental rights such as freedom of expression. #ai #europeanunion #elections #news https://lnkd.in/dWdS2jaA

📣 We are pleased to announce the publication of our newly updated Data and Elections Checklist. The checklist aims to act as a tool for electoral observers to understand the roles of key stakeholders involved, assess the technology that supports the electoral process and analyse the potential of a given election to undergo voter manipulation off the back of data-intensive political campaigning. The publication of this checklist is part of our fight to protect free and fair elections, as regulatory efforts towards transparency, accountability and the ethical use of data lag far behind the swift digitisation of many aspects of electoral processes around the world. The checklist builds on our previous work supporting electoral observers and civil society to address some of the challenges posed by the use of technologies and data in elections in the context of elections in Myanmar in 2020 and in Kenya in 2022. Learn more below.

How should observers address emerging challenges such as the increased importance of data protection in elections? Check out this newly updated data and elections checklist by Privacy International -

In 2024, 4.2 billion voters will face elections influenced by AI-driven misinformation, identified in the Global Risks Report 2024 as a critical threat to the stability of societies. This era, marked by misinformation about election processes and targeting of marginalised communities, heightens risks to democratic integrity. https://lnkd.in/dJAEYWd4

How we achieved anonymity on Web3 token-based elections At the heart of Vocdoni's mission there is to innovate secure and anonymous voting mechanisms, as we believe it's a primitive for fair and legitimate participation in many scenarios. Voter's anonymity can be easily preserved in 1Person-1Vote scenarios, as we already offer with our SDK and UIs using zk-Snarks. However, for token-based elections, separating identities from votes is not enough because token holders have a unique balance for a token, making them easy to identify as the weight of a vote can be correlated with an address. In this article https://lnkd.in/dFDD8Sxu, we'll detail our approach to resolving this issue.

📢 Newly updated Privacy International checklist on data and elections. You may be interested in having a look!

In seven months from now, we European citizens will be voting in the next European Parliament elections. In addition, over the coming months we will have key national elections in Austria, Croatia, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, the Netherlands Romania and Slovakia. There's no doubt that any of these could be the target of bad actors who want to interfere with our democratic processes and influence results.    This week we published the different steps Microsoft is taking to help protect elections throughout Europe and across the world. These steps are based on a set of principles to safeguard voters, candidates, campaigns, and election authorities worldwide. For example, they include a new digital watermark technology for election candidates to validate their campaign content and protect it from tampering and fakes. It also includes giving voters in Europe and elsewhere access to reliable election information on Bing and promoting trusted sources of news. Read more from Brad Smith and Teresa Hutson below.    https://lnkd.in/eSCzWk4N

Safeguarding Democracy or Fulfilling Due Diligence? Platforms Gear Up for the EU Parliamentary Elections 2024 As the EU elections approach, social media platforms are intensifying their efforts to protect the integrity of the democratic process. Here are some examples of how YouTube and TikTok aim to do so: High-Quality Content: - Google's platform YouTube aims to feature content from authoritative sources more prominently - providing information panels on videos while users navigate election content. -TikTok will launch in-app Election Centers, providing users with information sourced from electoral commissions and civil society. Countering Disinformation: - YouTube is enforcing policies against manipulated content and misinformation, for e.g. by requiring actors to disclose realistically altered or synthetic content to empower users' ability to identify potentially misleading information. - TikTok is collaborating with fact-checkers to assess the accuracy of content across multiple languages and will label content with unverified claims, promoting transparency and accountability. Enhancing Security and Transparency Measures: - YouTube's Threat Analysis Group is monitoring and tackling emerging threats to election integrity, collaborating with experts in the field to disrupt coordinated influence operations targeting high-risk entities. - TikTok has a policy of not allowing paid political advertising and prohibits political accounts belonging to advertise or make money on the platform. It is no less crucial that platforms such as YouTube and TikTok don't just stand by but actively take steps to uphold democratic processes. Although TikTok's participation is notable, its history of cybersecurity issues raises concerns about the effectiveness of its measures. History has unfortunately shown platforms to typically adopt a passive approach devoid of strategic initiatives. We're crossing our fingers for change, even though past experience suggests otherwise. Read more on the comprehensive measures, including those taken by other Google services here: Google: https://buff.ly/48tYRa5 TikTok :https://buff.ly/49vSKDG