Weeding out fake news in Singapore
Social media giant joins forces with AFP to tackle fake news
Facebook expands its third-party fact-checking service days before the parliamentary debate on proposed fake news legislation set to take place on Monday. The social media giant will be working with AFP to reduce the spread of misinformation and improve the quality of the news people find online.
SINGAPORE: Facebook announced the extension of its third-party fact-checking service to Singapore, days before the parliamentary debate on proposed fake news legislation is set to take place on Monday.
The social media giant is working with international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) to provide the service.
From Thursday onward, AFP will review and rate the accuracy of stories in English, Mandarin and Malay on Facebook in Singapore, including photos and videos.
The agency said it will have one fact-checking reporter at its Singapore bureau supported by a regional team in Hong Kong.
Stories can be flagged to AFP by a Facebook algorithm or the user community, while its factcheckers also work to proactively identify false news content.
Facebook provides its factcheckers with nine rating options.
Stories rated as “false”, “mixture” or “false headline” by a fact-checker will be bumped down in users’ Facebook news feeds, significantly reducing their distribution.
Users who try to share content falling into any of the above three categories will be notified of the fact-checker’s rating.
Singapore is the sixth AsiaPacific country to have the service rolled out, after the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan and Australia, which was started by Facebook in December 2016.
“We believe that with this programme, we can help build a more informed community in
We believe that with this fact-checking programme, we can help build a more informed community in Singapore.
Anjali Kapoor
Singapore and look forward to exploring more opportunities to expand this programme locally,” said Anjali Kapoor, Facebook’s Asia-Pacific director of news partnerships.
Facebook’s announcement comes days before the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill will be debated in Parliament next Monday.
On Tuesday, Nominated Members of Parliament Anthea Ong, Irene Quay and Walter Theseira proposed four amendments to the Bill.
The trio said in a joint statement that the Bill should set out the key principles under which it would be applied, and require the Government to publicly explain its decisions when exercising its powers.
The NMPs emphasised that they agreed with the “legislative intent behind the Bill” but pointed out that “the Bill as written does not contain such assurances that limit how the Bill’s powers can be used”.