Facebook initiated a three-pronged strategy to stop fake news and misinformation from spreading on its platform. The strategy constitutes of identifying and removing contents that violates its policies so that the users of the social website will see less of the posts which contain fake news on their wall. Fake news and misinformation has always been a used for political and economic profit by persons and parties alike.
The strategy works on three fronts, first it removes accounts and content that violate its community standards and policies. Second part of the strategy is that in some countries the social giant partners with third-party fact checkers to review and rate the accuracy of articles and posts on Facebook. These fact-checkers are independent and certified through the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network. And lastly it informs people and the users by giving them more context on the posts they see, Tessa Lyons, a Facebook product manager on News Feed focused on false news, said in a statement on Thursday.
Due to the increase of the fake news on Facebook and the part it played in manipulating politics it is being criticized in many countries.
Lyons said Facebook’s three-pronged strategy roots out the bad actors that frequently spread fake stories. “It dramatically decreases the reach of those stories. And it helps people stay informed without stifling public discourse,” Lyons added.
Although false news does not violate Facebook’s Community Standards, it often violates the social network’s polices in other categories, such as spam, hate speech or fake accounts, which it removes. “For example, if we find a Facebook Page pretending to be run by Americans that’s actually operating out of Macedonia, that violates our requirement that people use their real identities and not impersonate others. So we’ll take down that whole Page, immediately eliminating any posts they made that might have been false,” Lyons explained.
“False news is bad for people and bad for Facebook. We’re making significant investments to stop it from spreading and to promote high-quality journalism and news literacy. We now block millions of fake accounts every day when they try to register,” Lyons added.
The social media giant was already being criticized and had faced lawsuit from its investors and the British and US governments over privacy violation and data harvesting. And adding to the strategy to stop fake news and misinformation shared on the platform, it hopes to gain its worldwide user’s broken trust on the platform.
Leave a Comment