"Facebook" stated that it would be partnering with fact-checking sites like Snopes to help wash out the fake news that has been screwing the site in recent years. But it seems that Germany is not confident that self-regulation will be enough.
The chairman of "Germany's Social Democratic Party," Thomas Oppermann, has suggested a new law that would require companies like Facebook to set up an office in the country that would deal with fake news and hate speech at all hours of the day.
"German legislators are considering whether to institute a policy that if Facebook's local office did not delete the news item or hate speech within 24 hours, the social network could expect a fine of €500,000 euros ($522,575) per item," as stated in a report by Deutsche Welle.
"Facebook" has repeatedly said since the Nov. 8 election of Donald Trump in the US that fake news on its site, which has roughly 180 million users in the US and Canada, could not have affected the election. The move is partly in response to fears that fake news posts could have an effect on the German parliamentary elections taking place in 2017.
As an immediate action from "Facebook," the company is now testing a system to identify fraudulent news stories has won plaudits from fact-checking experts, including some involved in the project. Facebook's plan for combating fake news, a response to mounting criticism over the spread of misinformation, particularly during the US presidential election, is theoretically relatively simple. When enough users flag a news article they think is factually inaccurate, "Facebook" sends the link to a digital clearing house accessible to a handful of fact-checking organizations. The process involved in establishing the veracity of stories is also complicated.
The "Walt Disney Company," which owns ABC News, is effectively subsidizing a solution to a problem faced by Facebook. Despite the fact that Facebook is one of the most valuable companies in the world with a market cap of more than $340 billion.