Facebook’s Steps to Curb Fake News

Social media has emerged as a fast convenient platform for the sharing of information. It has gained a great deal of popularity, especially among the youth. For this reason, social networks have been used in the spread of fake and fraudulent news. This spread of fake information is harmful to the public. It makes people less informed and erodes trust.

Facebook, which has emerged as a giant in the social media industry, has also been used in the spread of false information. For that reason, Facebook has identified key areas to address this issue.

Protection Acts

These key areas have been divided into, disruption of economic incentives, development of new products and aiding the public and Facebook users to identify fake news and also make sound decisions if they encounter them. Using these three major blocks, it has hence been easier to identify and curb the spread of this fraudulent news in time.

Limiting Sponsorship

Most of these fake pieces of information have been financially motivated. Limiting finances and sponsorship of advertisements to these accounts has been key in discouraging the spread of this kind of news. Partnership with third-party organizations which deal with fact-checking has been key in identifying these fraudsters. Facebook also came up with strict policies for advertisements making it difficult to score them. This has gone a long way in discouraging those who are in it for profits.

New Products

Another means Facebook has used to deal with fake news is through the development of new products. These are new products within the page which discourage the spread of false information. One such product is the ranking improvements in the news feed. Facebook is coming up with new criteria of ranking the frequency with which a post appears in the news feed. One such criterion is basing on the number of shares or reactions a post gets. The assumption is that a post with fewer shares has probably been identified as a fake by readers hence it appears at the bottom of your news feeds.

Another product used by Facebook is the development of an easier reporting means. Now a reporting button is available on every post. And reporting is just a click away. If a user suspects the information is fake they may use this button. Facebook then uses third party checkers to verify the validity of the information. If found false the information is pulled down and the user punished by receiving a ban from the website for some duration.

Detection of Fake Accounts

Facebook has also improved the detection of fake and false accounts. This has been achieved by creating new improved false account detection updates from time to time. Application of machine learning has also contributed greatly to improving this product.

Involving the users and aiding them in identifying false information has also helped a great deal to curb this problem. Facebook has helped people make informed decisions by involving journalists to create public awareness on how to deal with such situations. They have also been involved in coming up with initiatives aimed at educating the public on news integrity.