Facebook to launch Arabic fact-checks

Facebook has announced that it will be launching third- party factchecking in Arabic, in partnership with Agence France-Presse (AFP) MENA. This partnership will help fund the fact-checking work that AFP will do on Facebook, and help them in their efforts to combat false news off the platform as well. Facebook’s new Arabic fact-checking programme will begin to roll out this year with the aim of reducing the spread of misinformation, whilst improving the quality of news people find on its platform.

As with all of Facebook’s partners in the programme across the world, AFP is part of a global network of fact-checking organisations, certified by the non- partisan International Fact-Checking Network. Arabic- speaking AFP fact-checkers will tap the additional expertise of local journalism bureaus across MENA to fact-check Arabiclanguage content on Facebook, and will follow a standard set of criteria when determining the veracity of stories.

When third-party fact-checkers write articles about a piece of content, Facebook will show these in Related Articles immediately below the story in the News Feed. Page Admins and people on Facebook will also receive notifications if they try to share a post or have shared one in the past that’s been determined to be false, allowing people to decide for themselves what to read, trust and share.

Facebook has an ongoing framework to improve the quality and authenticity of stories.