Facebook (and other social media platforms) have a fake news problem now where thanks to the ability to share easily and quickly at a press of a button, fake news and hoaxes can be easily spread. Sometimes this isn’t done on purpose, but intentional or not, it does cause a bit of a problem.
We know that Facebook is coming up with ways to cut down on fake news, and according to a report from Reuters, Facebook will soon be fact-checking photos and videos uploaded in an attempt to cut down on fake news and hoaxes. This program has already begun in France with assistants from AFP and it is expected to expand to more countries and partners soon.
This was confirmed by Tessa Lyons, a product manager at Facebook. However Lyons did not mention what kind of criteria Facebook or AFP will be using to evaluate photos or videos, and how much could a photo or video be edited before it might be considered to be fake. Like we said, Facebook has come up with various ways in the past to combat fake news.
This includes flagging articles that might be in dispute, showing articles that have been fact-checked, and also clamping down on users who tend to “overshare”, which apparently based on research suggests that people who share more than 50 times a day tend to share low-quality content.
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