Facebook Announces its Policies Against Fake News

Facebook was criticized for not taking responsibility of how it might have affected the outcome of 2016 presidential elections. The company has now made public the plans that it will take to crack down on fake news.

Facebook May Clear Hoaxes Spread By Spammers For Their Own Gain

Presently there is need of rolling out the social networking corrective updates. These are the first steps and they cannot solve the problem in one night. A company representative says that Facebook is giving people a voice and the company itself cannot become the arbiter of truth. The spammers are engaging both the community as well as the third party organizations.

There would be crowd sourcing similar to how Facebook rely on third party fact checkers, policies mature content and no financial incentives for fake news hucksters, Wired reports.

The Company Is Currently Working With Fact Checking Groups

Users would be informed if the story they are trying to share is reported as fake. Users will also be allowed to report a possible hoax while clicking the upper right-hand corner of the post. They can choose one reason out of four to flag the post. In the case of the false story it may be tagged along with an alert message declaring it to be disputed by third party fact checkers, NPR reports.

Facebook Would Punish Fake News Sites

Strict ad rules will be applicable on fake news sites. In fact, there shall be no integration of ads in apps or sites that are misleading, illegal or deceptive. Fake news has been added to the list and the company assures that the new policy should be implemented correctly.

The concept of fake news presents a real threat to democracy and the companies who spread this disinformation make money through ad dollars. Facebook as a platform only acts as a middleman to such companies but it should step up against deceptive sites.