Facebook's election 'war room' takes aim at fake information

Facebook has a new "war room" to combat fake accounts and bogus news stories. It's the social network's latest public signal that it takes election interference seriously ahead of the midterms. But critics fear the war room is more of a publicity stunt than an effective solution.

Inside the room are dozens of employees staring intently at their monitors while data streams across giant dashboards. On the walls are posters of the sort Facebook frequently uses to caution or exhort its employees. One reads, "Nothing at Facebook is somebody else's problem."

That motto might strike some as ironic, given that the war room was created to counter threats that almost no one at the company, least of all CEO Mark Zuckerberg, took seriously just two years ago — and which the company's critics now believe pose a threat to democracy.

The war room is a major part of Facebook's ongoing repairs. Its technology draws upon the artificial intelligence system Facebook has been using to help identify "inauthentic" posts and user behavior. Facebook provided a tightly controlled glimpse at its war room to The Associated Press and other media ahead of the second round of presidential elections in Brazil on Oct. 28 and the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 6.