the TSE would subsequently be permitted to call a number at Facebook to request that content be taken down.38 The provision would only be used in extreme situations, for instance when public order or the fundamental right to vote were threatened by fake news or organized social media manipulation. This was not the case during the 2020 municipal elections. Hence, the mechanism has not been used to date. Facebook further agreed to share details with the TSE about the amounts spent on electoral campaign advertising and by whom. Yet, in practice this is only possible if the advertisement is labeled as electoral campaign advertising. One interviewee admitted that: “It is unlikely that any sinister activity or deliberate false information campaign will be labeled as electoral campaign advertising, nor is it likely to be paid for by a political party directly.” 39 Facebook offered three additional products to Costa Rica’s TSE ahead of the municipal elections. On election day voters upon opening their Facebook page: a) were alerted that the election is taking place, b) automatically got a link to the TSE informing them where they could vote; and c) could share that they voted to incentivize participation. The idea for the 2022 general election is to have in place a similar agreement with Facebook. 40 A fourth pillar of the TSE’s strategy did not come to fruition. The TSE had hoped to create a fact-checking alliance between all main news outlets at a national level with the help of Facebook. The idea was that each news company would assign two of their journalists to an overarching fact-checking team during the election process and would publish the unit’s findings in all participating news outlets. The unit would keep ownership of editorial process while enjoying the symbolic support of the TSE. Facebook was subsequently to notify their users of the false news. This initiative failed to take off, given the rivalry between existing individual efforts at fact-checking. These individual efforts include “the Government Clarifies” (Gobierno Aclara) program, the UCR’s “Doble Check” (DobleCheck) program, Crhoy.com’s initiative “Don’t fall for it” (“No Caiga”), as well as the “Don’t be Fooled” (“NoComaCuento”) project by La Nación. Each of them is further explained below. PAC Government Initiatives The website “The Government Clarifies”, launched on July 31, 2019, was the government’s direct response to the incorrect claim that VAT would be raised by 3%. The platform is managed by the Communication Ministry and focuses mainly on anonymous content circulating on social media rather than information produced by the media. The public can follow “Gobierno Aclara” via the website, Facebook, Twitter as well as WhatsApp (Zuñiga, 2019). Of the 18 items identified as false and published by the government (see Table 4) which were circulating on social media or via WhatsApp between 31 July 2019 and 7 June 2020, six had to do with the welfare state, falsely claiming Costa Rican citizens would lose some of their current social benefits (in one occasion to immigrants), three had to do with the corona crisis or natural disasters, two were related to fiscal reforms and the country’s liquidity, another two were false govt. endorsements of bitcoin, and a few others concerned false news about the president, related to the first lady, government salaries, the education ministry and transport regulations. 15 out of 18 were false news items that were negative about the government. 95