‘Facebook’ Latest News & Updates: Facebook Gets Serious, Fights Spoof Fake News Out!

Facebook finally vowed to fight the proliferation of fake news on the internet. This after the complaints mounted against the social media giant for not doing enough in fighting the circulation of malicious news. Fake reports have affected thousands, if not million, of lives and institutions whose social media accounts and pages become crucial parts of their day-to-day existence.

From celebrity hoaxes, political attacks, money making scams, to fake cancer cure, among others, fake news has taken Facebook by storm rendering the social media platform helpless against vicious attackers. The campaign aims to stop fake news as they slowly penetrate the pillars of journalism and started to create clout on the credibility of genuine news organizations. Malicious information, initiated by selfish individuals and organizations, have taken lives, break relationships and even influenced election results.

Facebook taps non-profit organization Poynter Institute, with its member partners, to lead the global campaign against fake news. In partnership with Facebook, the fact-checking groups include The Associated Press, ABC News, Politifact, FactCheck.org and Snopes. These agencies, which will eventually expand, will help flag malicious stories posted on Facebook classifying them as "Disputed".

"We see is that there are people who are writing stories, creating information that is fake on purpose for financial gain. So that's not journalism. We're not questioning journalism in this case. We're questioning stories that are false on purpose to generate page views, which leads to revenue," said Aaron Sharockman, executive director of Politifact as quoted by FoxNews.

Although these malicious stories will not be removed, classifying them as "Disputed" will push the story down at the user's newsfeed. While account holders can read and share the fake new items, they will eventually get a warning. Inviting the world's leading new organizations in fighting fake new is a welcome development. This as many believe that Facebook, being an engineer-led company, does not have the skills and expertise in making complex media ethics decision.

Created to fuel inflammatory emotional response, fake news can easily make its way of getting viral than traditional news platform. Aside from going after fake news, Facebook will also seek to end spammers that shared fabricated stories for their own gain by spoofing their domain outside Facebook. Watch the news of Facebook's campaign against fake news here: