Meta has also announced it will monitor and target co-ordinated efforts to spread false content online, amid fears foreign networks will attempt to interfere with the May vote.

Facebook has faced criticism for its response to elections - including the 2016 Brexit campaign and 2020 US presidential race - with experts warning the platform has allowed misinformation to flourish.

But Josh Machin, Meta's head of public policy for Australia, said the company had learnt "key lessons" from the 200 elections it had been involved in over the past five years.

Meta will this month add the RMIT FactLab to its third-party fact-checker in Australia, reviewing and rating the accuracy of posts on Facebook and Instagram.

"Our fact-checkers work to reduce the spread of misinformation across Meta's services," Mr Machin said.

"When they rate something as false, we significantly reduce its distribution."

Those attempting to share false content will also be notified, while warning labels and articles debunking the content will be added to the post.

RMIT FactLab will join the Australian Associated Press and Agence France-Presse in assessing the credibility of posts on Facebook. Meta's fact-checkers will also receive one-off grants to bolster their capacity in the lead-up to the vote.

FactLab director Russell Skelton described the fact-checker as an "important public service" as Australians weighed their vote.

"If we can play a role in preventing the dissemination of misinformation on social media that has the potential to mislead or harm, then we see that as ... really critical," he said.

READ MORE:

While a significant proportion of misinformation is passed on unknowingly by users, Mr Machin said Meta was alert to more concerted attempts to influence the election.

He said the company will work with Australia's election integrity taskforce to identify "co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour", having removed over 150 networks before elections since 2017. That includes identifying and removing fake accounts, often behind misinformation campaigns.

"We have specialised global teams to identify and take action against threats to the election," he said.

And after COVID-19 misinformation targeted diverse communities in Australia, the response will also include media literacy campaigns in three foreign languages - Vietnamese, simplified Chinese, and Arabic.

Our coverage of the health and safety aspects of this outbreak of COVID-19 in the ACT is free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support. You can also sign up for our newsletters for regular updates.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: