Mark Zuckerberg discloses steps to fight fake news on Facebook
Facebook came under fire after it was claimed that fake news on the social media platform could have impacted on the result of the election.
Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. “Normally we wouldn’t share specifics about our work in progress, but given the importance of these issues and the amount of interest in this topic, I want to outline some of the projects we already have underway”, he wrote last night. The company will also try to prevent fake-news providers from making money through its advertising system, as it had previously announced.
Since the election, Facebook has come under fire for promoting fake news that many say worked to sway the election in favor of President-elect Donald Trump. Once the system has determined the credibility of the news and its source, the content is penalized and is less likely to become viral on the platform.
Zuckerberg also says he intends to employ third party verification and engage in better quality discussion with journalists and news media outlets. That feature has been available for years, but flagging content as fake now requires digging through three layers of menus. Not Facebook. Which means the “fake news” controversy Facebook is now dealing with around the election won’t be Facebook’s problem if it crops up in your inter-office discussions. US President Barack Obama has said the wide dissemination of false news presents a threat to democratic institutions.
Accordingly, he is actually telling us what steps he will take to tackle the fake news plague.
According to the report by BuzzFeed, the main reason behind the increment in fake news websites is the way they perform much better than factual websites.
In a recent interview with the Washington Post, one fake news writer said he makes $10,000 a month from AdSense and uses Facebook to help boost his site traffic. You know, if we’re in a world of ever-expanding media options, it’s a tough thing to know how people are going to make good choices.
A lot of you have asked what we’re doing about misinformation, so I wanted to give an update.The bottom line is: we. Fake news about both candidates was rampant, and some have accused Facebook of helping Donald Trump win the election by failing to address the “fake news” problem. He added that the company will work hard to enhance its ability to detect fake news.
Mark Zuckerberg has continued to resist the notion that Facebook can unduly affect how people think and behave.
However, he said, Facebook believes in giving users a voice, “which means erring on the side of letting people share what they want whenever possible”. Facebook is created to give you exactly what you want, rather than what you need, to hear. Some critics have gone so far as to blame Facebook for enabling Trump’s victory, saying it did not do enough to curb bogus news that appeared to help rally his supporters. Although they find a way discourage webmaster to produce fake news, however, the company has no plans to remove these from its news feed.