CALIFORNIA, United States (AFP) — Facebook Inc said on Thursday (December 15) it will introduce tools to prevent fake news stories from spreading on its platform, an about-face in response to rising criticism that it did not do enough to combat the problem during the lead-up to the U.S. presidential election.
The social network company has faced controversies throughout the year that involve its monitoring and policing of content produced by its 1.8 billion users. It stressed that the new features are part of an ongoing process to refine and test how it deals with fake news.
Facebook said users will find it easier to flag fake articles on their News Feed as a hoax, and that it will work with organizations such as fact-checking website Snopes, ABC News and the Associated Press to check the authenticity of stories.
If such organizations identify a story as fake, Facebook said, it will get flagged as “disputed” and be linked to the corresponding article explaining why.
The company said disputed stories may appear lower in its news feed, adding that once a story is flagged, it cannot be promoted.
The new tools come weeks after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said it was a “crazy idea” that fake or misleading news on Facebook helped swing the election in favor of Republican Donald Trump.
The criticism has persisted amid reports that people in the United States and other countries have been deliberately producing sensational hoaxes meant to appeal to conservatives that were often more widely read than news reported by major media organizations.
Ahead of the Nov. 8 election, Facebook users saw fake news reports saying that Pope Francis endorsed Trump and that a federal agent who had been investigating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was found dead.
The company in the past has relied mostly on users to report offensive posts, which are then checked by Facebook employees against the company’s “community standards.”
