Companies such as Facebook, Alphabet (Google), Twitter and Amazon are actively advertising to hire personnel to tackle new-age cyber propaganda, including ‘fake news’, ‘election interference’, and ‘disinformation’, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. The firm’s Job Analytics platform highlights the addition of 150 such jobs posted between January and October 2020. Most of these were junior and mid-level positions related to optimizing existing products and services in providing accurate and relevant information.

Ajay Thalluri, Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData, says: “Critical data and impending cyberattacks have led companies to take decisive steps to thwart any potential abuse of election-related information. The companies have put pre-emptive measures in place to ensure disinformation, election interference and manipulation stay away from social media discourse and reduce ways in which people can be influenced.”

Facebook posted poll-related jobs in the US that sought mid-level web security experts for its cloud and database platforms. Similarly, Alphabet posted jobs to work on Google AdSense and defend YouTube from election manipulation.

Some notable job postings noted by GlobalData’s Jobs Analytics database include Civic Outreach Lead, Civics and News; Policy Enforcement Manager, Elections and Misinformation for YouTube; Product Policy Manager, Misinformation; Product Designer Sr Manager – Health; Product Design Manager – Instagram, Well-Being; Content Policy Associate Manager, Software Development Manager, Alexa News.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData adds: “Besides leading teams and groups, these specialists are responsible for detecting problematic content, data transparency, internet accountability, and fake views and subscribers. Amazon made job postings to optimize its virtual assistant, Alexa, to give accurate information.”

Ajay concludes: “Companies are creating teams that are more sensitive to curate information so that there is no potential harm among different stakeholders. With strict government regulations on laws concerning misinformation and disinformation, companies are expected to continue increasing such job postings.”