Facebook has stepped up the battle against online misinformation with the latest update in which news stories are ranked in News Feed to prioritise original reporting and stories with transparent authorship, the company announced on its blog.
The new update is created using signals that are based on user research and were built with feedback from news publishers and academic experts.
“Original reporting plays an important role in informing people around the world, from breaking a news story to creating an in-depth investigative report, uncovering new facts and data, sharing critical updates in times of crisis, or broadcasting eyewitness reports. This important journalism takes time and expertise, and we want to ensure that it’s prioritised on Facebook,” says the social media giant.
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Facebook has been actively trying to tackle misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, from bogus cures to wide-ranging conspiracy theories.
Now articles will be prioritised in News Feed that are identified as original reporting on a developing story or topic.
This will be done by looking at groups of articles on a particular story topic and identifying the ones most often cited as the original source.
At present, the news stories that pop up on our News Feed are redirected from source users or their friends follow and that will not change.
When multiple stories are shared by publishers and are available in a person’s News Feed, Facebook will boost the more original one which will help it get more distribution.
News that does not have authentic information about the publisher’s editorial staff will be demoted because most news articles contain clickbait content or ad farms, all content which people no longer wish to see on the social media platform.
Facebook also announced that it would submit itself to an audit of how it controls hate speech in a bid to appease a growing advertising boycott of the platform, as it prepared to address a group of advertisers.
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The move comes as major advertisers such as Unilever and Starbucks have signed on to the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign started by US civil rights groups, which urges brands to pause their Facebook ads in July to pressure the social media giant to do more to take down hate speech.
The social media platform has also took down amorphous anti-government “boogaloo” movement on Tuesday, banning accounts of adherents who encouraged violence during recent anti-racism protests across the United States.
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