International
TikTok girds for US election misinformation threat
AFP
TikTok on Wednesday rolled out its battle plan against the deluge of misinformation expected to accompany the upcoming US midterm elections, a problem tech firms largely decide themselves how to handle.
The November contest that will decide who controls Congress will generate innocently shared false information as well as deliberate attempts to mislead on the major social media networks — which have begun announcing how they will fight back.
TikTok began reminding users that its ban on political ads includes videos that people are paid to create for the platform, head of US safety Eric Han said in a blog post.
“If we discover political content was paid for and not properly disclosed, it is promptly removed from the platform,” Han said.
TikTok has rolled out an “Elections Center” that will help users know how and where to vote, and feature videos intended to encourage people to think critically about online content, he added.
The widely popular video sharing app will add links to its Elections Center to content identified as being related to the midterm elections along with accounts belonging to governments, politicians or political parties.
TikTok will use automated systems and human fact-checkers to assess the accuracy of content, prompting users to “reconsider” sharing posts with unsubstantiated information, Han said.
Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project, one of the organizations working with TikTok, is helping provide information for registering and voting, said national director Mike Burns.
“We saw historic youth and student voter turnout in the 2018 and 2020 elections,” Burns said.
TikTok has emerged as a top social media platform for US teens, according to a recent Pew Research report.
Facebook parent Meta this week said that the safeguards it is putting in place for the midterms will build on lessons learned.
“As we did in 2020, we have a dedicated team in place to combat election and voter interference while also helping people get reliable information about when and how to vote,” Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg said Tuesday in a blog post.
Meta security operations will fight foreign interference and domestic influence campaigns, and include new measures to help keep poll workers safe, Clegg said.
Meta will remove misinformation about the voting process, poll results or the integrity of balloting and prohibit new election-related ads during the final week in the campaign, he added.
“We are once again prepared to respond to content discussing the integrity of the election by applying labels that connect people with reliable information,” Clegg said.
International
Merengue concert turns to mourning as Jet Set collapse claims 136 lives
Dominican rescue teams will end search and recovery operations on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at the Jet Set nightclubin Santo Domingo, where the building collapsed during a live concert.
Authorities estimate that the final 20 bodies will be recovered from the rubble today, bringing the official death toll to 136. This includes 12 additional bodies found overnight in the disaster zone, adding to the previously confirmed 124 fatalities.
Outside the collapsed nightclub, desperate relatives of the missing continue to gather, clinging to hope for news. Many also visited nearby hospitals and morgues in search of their loved ones.
A list of confirmed victims has been posted on a tent set up near the site, where the bodies are being transferred for identification.
The tragedy occurred during a performance by renowned merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was among the deceased.
Central America
Colombia to host fourth EU-CELAC Summit in November
The Fourth Summit between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) will take place on November 9 and 10 in Santa Marta, Colombia, according to a joint statement released Wednesday by the Colombian government and the European Council.
The summit will be co-chaired by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in his role as pro tempore president of CELAC, and European Council President António Costa, the statement added.
The last EU-CELAC summit took place in July 2023 in Brussels, when both blocs agreed to hold these meetings every two years.
The summit brings together the 27 EU member states and the 33 CELAC countries, representing 14% of the global population, 21% of global GDP, and one-third of the members of the United Nations, the communiqué noted.
International
Russia and US to Meet in Istanbul for Diplomatic Talks on April 10
The Kremlin confirmed today a forthcoming meeting with the United States to discuss the normalization of diplomatic relations, which will take place in Istanbul.
“Our participation will be through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” said Dmitry Peskov, the presidential spokesperson, during his daily telephone press conference.
Peskov was responding to a question about who would represent Russia in the new round of negotiations, which is supposedly scheduled for April 10.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the delegations will be led by the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Alexandr Darchiev, and the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Sonata Coulter.
These are the same negotiators who met in late February in Istanbul, where the expert-level negotiation format was the same, according to the source.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had said a few days ago that the next meeting would be held in the Turkish city, though he did not confirm a date.
Lavrov, who participated in only one of these meetings, clarified that the upcoming discussions would address the issues still dividing Moscow and Washington diplomatically, referring to the operations of both countries’ embassies.
The Kremlin asserted that Washington has not yet responded to Russia’s security concerns, preventing a ceasefire declaration on land, sea, and air.
Meanwhile, Trump expressed discontent with Russia’s recent attacks, including one last week that killed 20 people in Krivi Rig, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
So far, Russia has rejected a cessation of hostilities and only declared a 30-day ceasefire on March 18 against attacks on energy infrastructure, which was extended by Kyiv a week later.
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