An online meeting took place with representatives of Facebook responsible for the implementation of programs and tools in Central Asia on the initiative of the Central Election Commission of Kyrgyzstan (CEC).
CEC Chairwoman Nurzhan Shaildabekova thanked Facebook for effective cooperation during the 2020 elections.
«Social networks play an important role in conducting election campaigns around the world, including in Kyrgyzstan. They are important means of communication and dissemination of information. We would like to highlight the significance of the steps previously taken by Facebook. This made it possible to track the transparency of the election campaign, financing of campaign of parties and candidates. It was a good basis to combat dissemination of political advertising by fake accounts,» she said.
Facebook Managing Director for Public Policy George Chen highlighted the important role of Facebook family Apps, known as Meta, in Kyrgyzstan.
«We are proud to maintain good relations with the government of Kyrgyzstan. Last week, we received the President of Kyrgyzstan and one of the Deputy Heads of the Cabinet of Ministers who visited our stands in Glasgow, Scotland during the COP26 climate conference. Sadyr Japarov also told about use of social media to interact with the world and promote the image of Kyrgyzstan. We are working with Kyrgyzstan in various aspects, including elections, our cooperation will continue to support the needs of the Central Election Commission,» he stressed.
Following the meeting, the parties confirmed their readiness to continue cooperation and agreed that the CEC will provide Facebook with lists of all registered political parties and candidates in single-mandate constituencies participating in the parliamentary elections in order to identify users as part of its policy to confirm their identity.
The CEC Chairwoman thanked the Facebook representatives for their willingness to consider complaints that may arise on an individual basis.
«We see in general that the main candidates and parties do not yet use prohibited methods and prohibited content in their messages. But we still have the opportunity to monitor only a narrow group of the main party accounts,» Nurzhan Shaildabekova stressed.
If we have the information that we hope to receive from you, we will be able to monitor the information field in social media, in the part of the META network. This will give us more opportunities to take measures for the purity of the informational situation in the elections.
Nurzhan Shaildabekova
Elections are scheduled for November 28 in Kyrgyzstan. At least 54 deputies of the Parliament are elected according to a proportional system (from open lists of candidates of political parties) in single electoral districts, 36 deputies are elected according to the majoritarian system in single-mandate constituencies.
