Shafaq News/ Iraq's Digital Media Center (DMC) said on Saturday that the social platform "Facebook" has failed to address loopholes that allow defamation and misinformation ahead of the parliamentary elections.

“The application of Facebook’s rules for political ads in Iraq, which the company promised to work on, was marred by many loopholes that still allow political ads that are offensive to others and are based on false news, which are often promoted on the platform,” according to a statement by DMC.

DMC explained that "its team monitored many political advertisements on Facebook, which practice defamation against some candidates in one way or another, all of which are within an illegal political war between competing blocs."

"Electronic armies are engaged in an ongoing war. The new Facebook rules were unable to stop it completely or limit its behavior, especially in this period leading up to the elections."

"The sign of disclaiming responsibility for the ownership of the advertising financier that appeared in the Facebook ads does not reveal enough details, as it shows the name of the person operating the advertisement only, while his identity remains unknown to users in Iraq, which creates a blurry image of who is behind this ad, or the funding party."

"Iraq provides Facebook with huge sums through advertisements by millions of active monthly users, and it is not reasonable for Facebook to ignore what is happening on its platform in Iraq in terms of publishing fake news and illegal behavior in violation of the principles of democracy and political competition that is supposed to be  based on fairly moral foundations and standards."

"Although Facebook has stopped hundreds of ads that do not comply with its terms, on the other hand, there are still many violating ads, and therefore the Center renews its call to Facebook to do more in terms of monitoring political and electoral posts in order to clean up the platform as to be excluded from all posts that contain defamation and fake information."

Source: INA