Facebook is planning to step up its efforts against the fake news by sending more suspected news to fact checking and check their publications online. Facebook wants to take immediate action against the raising criticism against the social media platform not giving importance to filter out the fake news from genuine ones.
Facebook has just launched a new feature which will publish alternative news links beneath the suspected articles. This feature is now available only in four countries. But experts think that these efforts are not nearly enough to put an end to the fake news buzz.
Tom Felle, a senior lecturer in digital journalism at City University said that presenting audiences with context is very helpful. But these measures are not stopping the flow of traffic to fake news websites who are successfully making money out of garbage and fake content, he said.
“In addition to seeing which stories are disputed by third-party fact checkers, people want more context to make informed decisions about what they read and share,” said Sara Su, Facebook news feed product manager, per Reuters.
Facebook is now giving the job of fact checking to other third party checkers which in itself is a great decision as it eliminates doubt and lends credibility to this entire fight against the hoax articles. Facebook can not be the final arbiter in a matter it has a great interest in.
“We don’t want to be and are not the arbiters of the truth. The fact checkers can give the signal of whether a story is true or false” Facebook’s News Feed integrity product manager Tessa Lyons. Said to TechCrunch.
