Social media platform Facebook on Wednesday announced that it will be taking steps to fight fake news delivered to users. The social media giant is using a three-pronged approach that involves removing accounts that violate its policies which will help reduce redistribution of false content across the platform.
Facebook also went on to add that they will be informing people and giving them more context about the news they see on a daily basis. The platform will also be partnering with third-party fact checkers in some countries to help them review and rate the accuracy of the articles and posts on Facebook. The attempt comes after they were blamed for helping political manipulation in several countries during elections and also its failure in stopping hate-filled posts that are populating accounts about the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.
Interestingly, the social media giant’s Tessa Lyons, a Facebook product manager said they are taking steps to stop fake news from spreading and to promote high-quality journalism and news literacy. The attempt is being made on an urgent basis as India goes to elections in 2019. It will also eliminate bad actors trying to spread fake news across the platform for selfish purposes. However, while fake news does not violate Facebook’s Community Standards, it often violates the policies in other categories, such as spam, hate speech or fake accounts, which it removes. Facebook is also using machine learning so that it can help its team detect fraud and enforce its policies against spam.