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Facebook blocks pages from advertising if they repeatedly spread fake news
Facebook Inc. is still waging a difficult war against fake news on its social network, and today the company announced that it will take a tougher stance on pages that repeatedly spread “false news and hoaxes.”
Facebook product managers Satwik Shukla and Tessa Lyons said in a blog post today that Facebook will block pages from advertising on the social network if they repeatedly share stories that have been marked as false.
“This update will help to reduce the distribution of false news which will keep Pages that spread false news from making money,” said Shukla and Lyons.”We’ve found instances of Pages using Facebook ads to build their audiences in order to distribute false news more broadly. Now, if a Page repeatedly shares stories that have been marked as false by third-party fact-checkers, they will no longer be able to buy ads on Facebook.”
Shukla and Lyons said that Facebook is following three main strategies in its fight against fake news and hoaxes:
- Disrupting the economic incentives to create false news
- Building new products to curb the spread of false news
- Helping people make more informed decisions when they encounter false news
According to Facebook, pages that have been found guilty of spreading fake stories may eventually be allowed to advertise again if they no longer engage in sharing false information.
In addition to new policies, Facebook has also turned to technology to spot and remove fake news stories quickly from the social network using artificial intelligence. The company has also launched initiatives to educate users to be more discerning about their news in its efforts to create an “informed community.”
In May, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in his 5,800-word manifesto on globalism that he worries about fake news and has studied it extensively, but he also said that he believes a strong news industry is critical to building that community.
“Giving people a voice is not enough without having people dedicated to uncovering new information and analyzing it,” Zuckerberg said at the time.
Photo: Facebook
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