Facebook Announces New Strategy To Take Down Fake News (After Denying They Even Had A Problem With It)

The company says it will start fact-checking, labeling and burying fake news and hoaxes in the News Feed.

After copping some fierce backlash for its role in spreading a deluge of political misinformation during the U.S. presidential election, Facebook has upped the ante on taking down fake news.

The announcement came on Thursday when it was revealed Facebook would be partnering with a shortlist of media organisations, including ABC News and Snopes, who are part of an international fact-checking network.

Facebook will be trialing the fact-checking system with a small percentage of users in the United States.

The company intend to make it much easier to report news stories that are fake or misleading; once reported, fact-checkers will confirm whether they are indeed fake (or not).

When a story is proven to be fake, it will be demoted in the News Feed. It will then be pushed much lower in the feed, and users will get a warning message if they try to share it.

“We’ve focused our efforts on the worst of the worst,” said Facebook News Feed chief Adam Mosseri.

The company is also making it harder for known fake news sites to get advertising or sponsorship posts.

Apparently, fake-news writers can make exorbitant amounts of cash doing what they do—spreading false or misleading information. A lot of their income comes through internet ads.

Some might say Facebook's efforts come a little too late.

(Sorry, any excuse for a JoJo throwback though.)

Just days after the election, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tried to absolve the company of any blame for fake news running rampant. He previously released a statement saying “more than 99% of what people see [on Facebook] is authentic.”

After denying it has a problem with fake news, Facebook is now admitting that it does, in fact, have a problem with fake news.

Awkward?

Photo: Giphy and iStock