Davos 2025: Advertisers urged to combat disinformation on social media platforms

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ADVERTISERS have been urged to use their financial influence to combat the growing threat of disinformation on social media platforms.

This call was made by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a statement following the release of World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025, which ranked disinformation as the greatest short-term threat to society for the second consecutive year.

In 2024, The FactCheckHub had reported that the World Economic Forum (WEF) stated that the biggest immediate risk to the global economy was false information enhanced by advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI).

READ: AI-generated misinformation tops global risks in 2024, says World Economic Forum

The statement emphasized the pivotal role advertisers play in shaping the policies of major online platforms such as Meta and X, whose economic power depends heavily on advertising revenue.

“Social media advertising is dominated by Meta, which received 63 per cent of advertising spending on the global social media market in 2024, according to the marketing agency WARC.

“Thanks to this revenue, the group is now an economic empire reshaping the way its users access information. On January 7, 2025, its founder Mark Zuckerberg announced new anti-journalism policies that further degraded the company’s respect for the public’s right to quality information,” part of the statement read.

Vincent Berthier, Head of RSF’s Technology and Journalism Desk, stressed the need for advertisers to demand greater responsibility from these platforms.

“Online platforms owe their immense power to advertisers’ budgets; advertisers have a responsibility to push for ethical practices that protect public access to reliable information,” he stated.

The statement further noted that a key area of concern is the unchecked development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) by social media giants as platforms like Meta are leveraging the vast amounts of content shared by users to create generative AI systems that, in turn, produce new content for these platforms.

READ: Davos 2025: Fact-checking Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum

“It is imperative that platforms’ algorithms give priority to content from media outlets that comply with strict criteria for producing journalistic content, such as those defined by the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI).

“Influencers who do not produce reliable, independent public-interest information must not be equated with individuals or outlets that produce professional journalistic information of public interest following precise ethical standards. Content must be clearly categorized based on its origins, and influencers should adhere to a specific code of conduct requiring them to maintain greater transparency and take more responsibility vis à vis their audience and clients,” the statement added.

The organization’s call to action highlights the urgent need for collaboration between advertisers, regulators, and civil society to address the twin challenges of disinformation and the ethical use of AI in shaping the future of digital communication.

Fact-checker at The FactheckHub | [email protected] |  + posts

Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected].

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