In a big election year, Joyojeet Pal says social media platforms must do more to mitigate misinformation

2024 is the year of elections. More than two billion people across 50 countries are expected to go to the polls. Pakistan, Taiwan, the United States, India and Mexico are among countries that will be assessing new — and old — leadership options. 

With the impact of social media, the spread of misinformation, political advertising and the threat of artificial intelligence, it’s going to be challenging for voters to evaluate the credibility of a candidate. 

University of Michigan School of Information associate professor Joyojeet Pal, an expert on politics, social media and society, was interviewed by the Economic Times in India about what social media platforms can do to protect citizens from the barrage of fake news that is expected to circulate this year. 

In his interview, Pal talks about the need for transparency, especially when it comes to advertisements. 

“The only thing that social media companies can do for citizens is to be transparent about what politicians and political advertisers are doing on their platforms, and the best way to do this is to institute requirements for making advertising data public alongside building open APIs because all social media campaigns cannot be traced to explicit advertising,” he says. 

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Read “Is it time to update Model Code of Conduct? Adapting to tech-driven election landscape” at The Economic Times of India. 

Learn more about associate professor of information Joyojeet Pal by visiting his UMSI faculty profile.