GE15: Google Malaysia Wants To Keep Voters Informed

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With Malaysia heading to its 15th general election (GE), Google Malaysia has announced that they are working with various partners to help voters stay updated with reliable information.

They mentioned their commitment to helping Malaysians participate and stay informed, protect election integrity and support news organisations with tools for election reporting. 

Undi Negaraku

The search engine recently collaborated with the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Undi18 to launch Undi Negaraku at undinegaraku.org – an online voter education platform where individuals find resources on participating in the democratic process of an election.

With over 5 million first-time voters in Malaysia this year, we want to do our part to help them gain access to credible and helpful information as they navigate their first election. With internet penetration being so high with younger voters, they will likely turn to online resources to find information on who to vote for. 

Google Malaysia

READ MORE: UNDI18 Is Working With Google To Fight Misinformation And Help First-Time Voters

Working with the news industry

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), through the Centre for Research in Media & Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities and supported by the Google News Initiative has launched JOMCHECK MALAYSIA (JOMCHECK), the country’s first fact-checking collaboration launched to curb election-related misinformation. 

This is a groundbreaking academe-media-civil society alliance – the first of its kind in Malaysia – is bringing together multi-sectors in efforts to combat misinformation. While academe and media outlets can join hands in assisting with fact-checking, civil societies can aid with spreading awareness on accurate information. This work requires Malaysians from all walks of life to create a better informed society.

Google Malaysia

This is in addition to the Malaysia Election Workshop Series hosted by the university aimed to empower Malaysian journalists with the knowledge and tools for effective election reporting.

Google Malaysia said that more than 260 journalists have already taken part in these training sessions led by industry experts.

On their website, journalists can access free digital verification workshops, and equip themselves with a range of tools and techniques for covering elections.

If you’re interested in watching a replay of the workshops, click here. 

They’ve also mentioned that they’re working with journalists and news publishers to ensure the security of the online platforms that they use.

These include the Advanced Protection Program, their strongest level of account security for those who need it, which is available for free, and Project Shield, a free service that uses Google technology to protect news sites from DDoS attacks on the web.

You can read more about Project Shield here. 

Tackling misinformation on Google’s platforms 

Through Google’s Ad policies and YouTube Community Guidelines, they want to ensure that everyone understands digital best practices and their responsibility during elections.

Google said that they have policies governing misinformation – including election misinformation, Covid-19 medical misinformation, and vaccine misinformation – across their platforms. 

On YouTube, we’ve invested heavily in a framework we call the 4Rs of Responsibility over the past five years. With the help of machine learning and trained reviewers, we remove violative content in a timely manner, feature authoritative sources, and reduce the spread of problematic content.

Google Malaysia

You can find more information about YouTube’s approach to misinformation here or if you’re interested in reading more about what’s next in Google’s misinformation efforts, you can click here. 

People can also report on content that they believe violates our policies, including advertising and misinformation here while legal complaints should be lodged at g.co/legal. 

We continue to think about elections and how we can further support democratic processes around the world, including helping to connect people to useful and relevant election-related information, and working to protect election information online.

Google Malaysia

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