Summary The firm had been facing criticism for aiding in the spread of hoax stories. Photo courtesy: REUTERS
(Web Desk) - Facebook is ramping up its efforts to fight the rapidly emerging problem of fake news.
According to BBC, the social media giant is planning to deal with the problem of fake news by sending larger numbers of suspected hoax stories to fact checkers. The firm also plans to publish their findings online so that people can see them.
Moreover, the firm plans to launch a new feature in four countries whose aim would be to publish authentic substitute news links to suspected fake articles.
Till now Facebook had been highly reluctant to meddle in fake news stories and had stated that it does not want to act as an “arbiter of truth”.
The firm had previously dealt with the issue of fake news by identifying fabricated stories through a combination of user detection and artificial intelligence (AI). Once detected the stories were sent to independent fact checkers who looked at the stories and then alerted readers by placing a flag next to hoax stories.
However, on Tuesday the firm said that its going to start use of "updated machine learning" to increase detection of such stories. All these measures indicate that Facebook is planning on taking a stricter stance on fake news.
Still experts say that the actions do not go far enough in stopping the creation or spread of fake news.
Tom Felle, a senior lecturer in digital journalism at City University, stated that giving people context was helpful but, "it does nothing to stop the spread of this material, or to stop traffic going to fake news peddlers who are making money out of creating this material.”. He also stated that if Facebook was serious about stopping fake news it needed to help the news industry and "support quality, trusted news organisations to better reach audiences, and advertisers."
Facebook has been facing criticism for being one of the main distribution points for fake news which many believe had an effect on the 2016 US presidential election.
