Facebook gives users key role in ratings to curb fake news sites
Facebook is this week introducing a feature to allow its two billion users to rank their trust in news sources.
Along with Google and Twitter, Facebook has been criticised for allowing the spread of fake news, some of which was directed by Russia, before the 2016 US presidential election and in other countries.
Twitter on Friday announced that it would notify almost 670,000 users in the United States who followed, retweeted or “liked” posts from suspect accounts during the election period.
Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company would seek to “prioritise news that is trustworthy, informative and local”.
“There’s too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarisation in the world today,” Mr Zuckerberg said.
“Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before and if we don’t specifically tackle these problems then we end up amplifying them.”
The new “trusted sources” ranking aims to “make sure the news you see is high quality” and “helps build a sense of common ground”, rather than sow division, Mr Zuckerberg said.
He said Facebook decided to rely on member surveys as the most objective way to rank trust in news sources.
“We could try to make that decision ourselves, but that’s not something we’re comfortable with,” he said. “We considered asking outside experts, which would take the decision out of our hands but would likely not solve the objectivity problem.”
He said the ranking system would hopefully separate news organisations that are trusted only by their readers or watchers from ones that are trusted across society.
“This update will not change the amount of news you see on Facebook,” he said. “It will only shift the balance of news you see towards sources that are determined to be trusted by the community.”
Twitter said on Friday that the number of Russia-linked accounts firing off tweets evidently aimed at the 2016 US election was more widespread than initially determined.
The company found and closed another 1,062 accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency, considered a “troll farm” connected to the Russian government.
“Any such activity represents a challenge to democratic societies everywhere, and we’re committed to continuing to work on this important issue,” Twitter said.
For the 10 weeks investigated before the November 2016 election, Twitter identified a total of 3,814 accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency. Those accounts posted 175,993 tweets, 8.4 per cent of which were election-related, Twitter said.
The analysis also found another 13,512 automated accounts identified as “Russia-linked”, which tweeted election-related content during that period, bringing the total to 50,258 accounts.
Twitter said it was sharing information about the accounts with the US congress, where testimony late last year by Twitter, Facebook and Google showed that many more millions of Americans were exposed to the fake news than previously thought.
US politicians have been investigating whether president Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in its bid to influence the election.
Meanwhile, British MPs investigating possible Russian interference in the Brexit referendum revealed last week that Facebook had agreed to broaden its own investigation into fake news around the plebiscite.
The house of commons’ digital, culture, media and sport committee said Simon Milner, Facebook’s head of policy in Britain, had promised the company would now search for “clusters engaged in co-ordinated activity around the Brexit referendum” that appeared to have originated in Russia.
Mr Milner said it might take weeks to produce results.
The commitment follows demands from MPs for Facebook and Twitter to provide further information on alleged Russian social media meddling in the run-up to the June 2016 referendum.
Executives from the platforms, and from Google, are due to give evidence to the parliamentary inquiry in February, when MPs will visit the United States.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said it would prioritise news that is trustworthy