Facebook building war room to banish election meddling during midterms

Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg.
AP

• Facebook is creating a physical war room to snuff out
  interference in the US midterm elections.
• It will contain screens monitoring important Facebook
  metrics for unusual activity. It will be staffed by some of
  Facebook’s best brains, from areas including engineering and
  public policy.
• Facebook’s Samidh Chakrabarti said the company is in an
  “arms race,” but is much better prepared than it was in 2016
  during the presidential election.

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Facebook is in the process of building a physical war room at its
Menlo Park headquarters in a bid to seek out and destroy any
attempt to interfere in the US midterm elections.

With the midterms set to take place on November 6, Facebook is
creating what is effectively a computer lab which will be
operated by some of the best brains from across the business.

Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s head of civic engagement, told NBC News that the company
has to be ready for anything following the controversy over its
sluggish response to Russian interference in the 2016
presidential election.

“We’ve been building this war room, a physical war room [with] people across the company, of all different disciplines, who are
there. So, as we discover problems that may come up in the hours
leading up to the election, we can take quick and decisive
action,” he told NBC Business Correspondent Jo Ling Kent.

Speaking to Recode last month, Chakrabarti said the situation
room will contain a number of screens, monitoring important
Facebook metrics for unusual activity. Some will be fitted with
alarms to warn about unexpected spikes or dips in activity.

NBC carried footage of the
Facebook war room.
NBC
News

The room will be staffed with Facebook employees from
engineering, data science, public policy, and other areas of the
business, according to Recode.

“The war room isn’t so much about the technology that’s there as
it is about the process of having people across different
functions… be able to diagnose and fix any sort of acute issues
that we see,” Chakrabarti told the website.

In his NBC interview, he said Facebook is in an “arms race,” but
is much better equipped than it was in 2016. The firm has
introduced ad transparency tools, showing users who is paying to
advertise on the platform, while it has also detected, blocked,
and removed more than a billion fake accounts over the past six
months.

“We’re remaining ever vigilant, laser-focused to make sure that
we can stay ahead of new problems that emerge. This is going to
be a never-ending process,” Chakrabarti said.

The interview comes as Facebook’s COO Sherly Sandberg prepares to
give evidence to the Senate Intelligence Committee this week on
foreign influence operations.