Fighting fake news: Facebook unveils new initiatives

In continuing efforts to restore public and advertisers’ trust since revelations that Russia funded misinformation campaigns during the 2016 US presidential election, Facebook has announced three new initiatives designed to combat the spread of false news.

The social media network will be launching an updated ‘news literacy campaign’ to teach users how to identify false news, which is to appear both at the top of the News Feed and in print ads. The campaign will begin in the US, but will spread globally throughout the rest of the year.

Facebook will also be calling upon academics to help measure the volume and effects of misinformation on its platform, in continuation of an initiative announced last month to provide independent research about the role of social media in elections.

Scholars will be selected for research funding by a peer review process, and will be allowed access to the social media’s privacy-protected data sets.

“This will help keep us accountable and track our progress over time,” said John Hegeman, head of News Feed.

Facebook’s third announcement is the release of short film, Facing Facts – one of the first pieces of content from Inside Feed, a new site launched to shed light on the processes behind the social media giant’s products and algorithms.

So far this year Facebook has made multiple announcements in its attempt to rid itself of negative associations with murky, unethical data collection practices and fake news. This month alone has seen a report on its enforcement efforts, an update on third-party app investigations, and a promise to develop a new Clear History tool.