Several years ago, Facebook had an issue with fake news where it was found that people were spreading and sharing “news” from outlets that were known to spread misinformation. The company has since taken active steps to reduce fake news from appearing on its platform, and it looks like they might be succeeding in doing that.
According to Facebook, the company has announced that studies conducted by three independent organizations have found that fake news on Facebook is on the decline. This isn’t to say that they have been eliminated completely, but they are definitely down compared to a few years ago.
For example one of the studies conducted by researchers from New York University and Stanford found that interaction with fake news websites have declined by more than half compared to 2015 and 2016. Another study by the University of Michigan’s School of Information Center for Social Media Responsibility has also found that back in 2016, engagement with fake news was twice as high on Facebook compared to Twitter, but that is no longer the case as Twitter is now apparently taking the “lead” with 50% higher engagement with fake news compared to Facebook.
The third study is by Les Décodeurs, French newspaper Le Monde’s fact checking arm, where they found that engagement with “unreliable or dubois sites” have dropped by 50%. However it should be noted that this seems to mostly cover the US and French markets, so while it isn’t a complete victory, we suppose it’s still something.