Tech giant Google has launched new tools for Thailand's upcoming general election, while LINE Thailand suggests politicians use their "Official Accounts" to communicate with voters.
The moves aim to tackle misinformation.
Saranee Boonritthongchai, country marketing manager at Google Thailand, said that in the lead-up to the election, the company understands that Thais need helpful and relevant information to help them make decisions.
The company recently launched a Google Trends Thailand General Election page to make it easier for the media and public to find search trends related to political campaigns.
"We've focused our efforts on supporting the 52 million Thais who are expected to cast their vote and more than 3 million first-time voters in the election this year by helping them connect to useful and relevant election-related information online, ensuring that our products offer unbiased, authoritative and timely information," she said.
"To curb misinformation at the source, we also trained and engaged journalists and newsrooms on reporting authoritative and credible news ahead of the election cycle."
The policies of Google Ads and YouTube's Community Guidelines help ensure that everyone understands digital best practices and their responsibilities during elections, said Ms Saranee. Google has policies governing misinformation related to elections, Covid-19 and vaccines across its platforms.
Mukpim Anantachai, head of YouTube partnerships for Thailand and Vietnam, said election integrity is a priority for the company and it has been working to ensure the right policies and systems are in place to support the election.
As well as connecting people to authoritative and quality information, YouTube removes content that violates its standards in a timely manner with the help of machine learning and trained content reviewers. Its goal is to maintain a balance between protecting the community from harm and enabling a diversity of viewpoints to thrive on YouTube, said Ms Mukpim.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, content that violated guidelines comprised 0.09% to 0.11% of views on YouTube. More than 5.6 million videos and 6.4 million channels were removed for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines. Of these, more than 69,000 videos from Thailand were removed.
In related news, LINE Thailand recommends political parties and candidates use its verified Official Accounts (OA) to communicate with the electorate.
LINE OA messages generated by political parties or candidates are labelled in the politics category. Advertising campaigns on Line Ads are available, assuming messages comply with the laws and regulations of the Election Commission.
