Facebook is stepping up its efforts to eliminate the fake news menace from users timelines. They are shutting off ads and blacklisting publishers who spread fake news using their pages to build an audience. The authenticity of their posts and articles will be checked by third party fact finding organizations who will then approve or reject the ads.
If that page is found to be spreading fake news and their ads have been rejected multiple times, then they will be blocked from advertising on Facebook. There will no possible way for the publisher to make money from that article when the ads are blocked. Only after they have cleared their Pages from these specific posts and deliver articles based on facts and proper journalism, they will be allowed to resume the promotion of their page.
Facebook Product Managers Satwik Shukla and Tessa Lyons made the announcement in a blogpost. Facebook intends to fight fake in three key areas:
- Disrupting the economic incentives to create false news;
- Building new products to curb the spread of false news; and
- Helping people make more informed decisions when they encounter false news.
Fake news can not only create unnecessary panic in a community but publishers will lose trust from their readers if they continue with this practice. One should have a little knowledge to distinguish a false news article versus an authentic one. Users should be extremely selective of the publishers who will deliver news on their timelines.
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