Facebook Has New Policies To Tackle Fake News

Facebook has just announced another change in its policy to deal with fake news, which holds groups’ admins responsible for monitoring what members shared. This announcement was released in an event with the participation of the press.

The social site has been under the fire for years for being irresponsible when its platform is used to spread fake news. One of the most serious cases with Facebook as the mean to distribute hate content is the Myanmar genocide. In the US 2016 presidential election, studies have found out that fake news even ranks higher than articles providing real information.

Facebook is partly responsible for the Myanmar genocide 

This is Facebook’s latest attempt to tackle fake news as the frustration and concern of the public for tech and regulation escalates. The company seems to want to show its commitment to solving this problem. Here are what new about Facebook after the latest change:

Messenger will have a verified badge to prevent scamming

Users can erase all the content they have posted in a group when they leave it

Users now have Trust Indicators if they want to judge how credible what they see on News Feed is

Facebook's Trust Indicators

Associated Press will monitor more content on Facebook under a partnership with the company

Facebook now takes “click-gap” into consideration when it decides the position of a website on its News Feed. This is a figure that shows if the web is as popular on the social site as on the Internet in general. If a news site has more links from Facebook than from other websites, it might suggest that the site is spammy and has the potential to report fake news.

Changes are also occurring on Instagram, Facebook’s photo-sharing app.

Pictures that do not exactly violate any policy but has controversial content. These photos will not show up in the Explore Tab or any hashtag. This new act has already led to concern about its influence on those who make a living on Instagram and minor groups of trans.