War Room: Housed between the 20 building and the 21 building in the heart of the Facebook campus, a conference room is under construction.
Cables hang from the ceiling, ready to be attached to 16 office computer monitors. On the wall, there are several televisions ready to tune in to CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and other major networks. A small sign taped to the glass door describes what is being built: “War Room.”
Starting next week, the space will be Facebook's election assurance headquarters. More than 300 people across the company are working on the election, but the War Room will house a team of about 20 people focused on disinformation, monitoring fake news and to delete fake accounts that might try to influence voters before elections in the United States, Brazil and other countries.
Photo nytimes.com
“Perhaps the biggest reorientation of the company since our transition from desktops to cell phones phones", said Samidh Chakrabarti, who heads the Facebook election department and the main political engagement team.
Facebook's misuse of the past elections did not leave too much room. In July and August, the company analyzed Iranian and Russian attempts to mislead users of the social network. Now, with the upcoming elections in the United States (in about seven weeks), Facebook is trying to convince the world that everything will go fine because it is ready to handle any new attempts to intervene in the elections.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, has pledged to fix each problems and stated that the company would be "better prepared" to handle any potential intervention. The company has reportedly taken measures to prevent spammers, hackers and foreign agents. Among these measures are the hiring of thousands of people who will monitor every content, and essentially record all political ads.
