Social Media Safety Concerns Mount Ahead of Critical 2024 Election Year

As the world prepares for a pivotal year in global democracy with 65 elections scheduled across various nations, concerns are intensifying about social media platforms’ ability to protect users from disinformation and hate speech. Recent investigations reveal alarming gaps in content moderation that could have significant implications for democratic processes worldwide.

Major social media companies, including Meta and X (formerly Twitter), have made substantial staff cuts over the past year, particularly in teams responsible for election safety and human rights. These reductions have raised fears about the platforms’ capacity to address the spread of harmful content during crucial electoral periods.

“In light of this critical year for global democracies, it has never been more urgent for social media platforms to protect their users from the inevitable onslaught of online hate and disinformation,” notes a recent report from Global Witness, an organization that has conducted extensive testing of platform safeguards.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. In 2024, billions of voters across diverse democratic landscapes—from established democracies like the European Union and the United States to emerging ones in Indonesia, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Egypt—will head to the polls. Historical precedents, such as the January 2021 Capitol riots in Washington DC and the January 2023 storming of government buildings in Brasilia by Bolsonaro supporters, demonstrate how online disinformation can fuel real-world violence.

To assess the platforms’ readiness, Global Witness has conducted a series of investigations since 2021, focusing on advertising standards—a critical area where companies claim to apply rigorous content moderation. Their methodology involves submitting ads containing extreme hate speech or disinformation, carefully ensuring these ads are never published but merely tested for approval.

The results have been consistently troubling. After testing in more than ten countries—including Brazil, Ethiopia, Ireland, Kenya, Myanmar, Norway, South Africa, the UK, and the USA—Global Witness found that major platforms frequently failed to enforce their own policies regarding hate speech and disinformation in advertisements.

“We believe our findings indicate that these companies would prefer to protect their profit-making business model than properly resource content moderation and protect the human rights of users,” the organization states. Particularly concerning is the apparent disparity in enforcement standards across regions, with platforms seemingly dedicating more resources to content moderation for US users than those in other countries.

This geographic inequity raises serious ethical questions. As social media becomes increasingly central to political discourse worldwide, users should not face varying levels of protection from manipulation and hate speech based solely on their location.

In response to these challenges, Global Witness has joined the Global Coalition for Tech Justice, a movement comprising 149 partners worldwide. The coalition aims to pressure social media companies to invest more heavily in safeguarding the 2024 elections, especially in regions that have historically received less attention.

Despite the concerning findings, advocates maintain that change is possible. Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen famously stated that these companies “choose profit over safety,” but critics argue that platforms can still implement meaningful reforms.

In the immediate term, this would require substantial investment in content moderation during critical periods to shield users from harmful content. Longer-term solutions would involve fundamental changes to the business models that currently profit from amplifying controversial and divisive content.

As the world enters this consequential election year, the response from social media platforms will likely have profound implications for the health of democratic processes globally and the safety of billions of users who depend on these digital spaces for information.