Fighting spread of fake news
Alexandra Hardiman has a tough job at hand: foil fake news on Facebook. The network, which has 2 billion active monthly users , was, along with other social media platforms, accused of not doing enough to stop misinformation during the 2016 US presidential election.
Hardiman, 35, is the head of Facebook’s news products division, which is responsible for fighting fake news and helping publishers discover new ways of storytelling and making money. She joined Facebook in 2016 to lead the pages product team focused on messaging and mobile products for small business. Previously, she was vice-president, news product division at The New York Times.
“As a part of the Facebook Journalism Project, my colleagues and I will work with news organisations across the spectrum to build new storytelling formats, local news communities, monetisation options, and more. We will also partner with teams in Facebook to continue curbing the spread of false news,” Hardiman wrote in a post on May 1, 2017.
In December last year, Facebook started working with third-party fact checkers to flag false content. This October, it tested with publisher info buttons on links to curb fake news.
Hardiman wrote in her post that she “grew up in news”. Her great-grandmother worked in radio and television in the US midwest. Her grandfather was a broadcast journalist.