Facebook seeks to check the spread of fake news

BERLIN: Facebook is to send more potential hoax articles to third-party fact checkers and show their findings below the original post, the world’s largest online social network said this week as it tries to combat fake news.

The company said on its website it would start using updated machine learning to detect possible hoaxes.

Facebook has been criticised as being one of the main distribution points for fake news, which many think influenced last year’s presidential election in the US.

The issue has also become a big political topic in Europe, with French voters deluged with false stories before the presidential election in May and Germany backing a plan to fine social media networks if they failed to remove hateful postings promptly, ahead of elections there next month.

On Thursday, Facebook said a test of the new fact-checking feature was being launched in the US, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

“In addition to seeing which stories are disputed by thirdparty fact- checkers, people want more context to make informed decisions about what they read and share,” said Sara Su, Facebook’s news feed product manager.

She added Facebook would keep testing its “related article” feature and work on other changes to its news feed to cut down on false news. – Reuters