Facebook releases short film to fight fake news

Facebook is trying hard to fight fake news and other kinds of misinformation and in order to go forth with it, Facebook has made a short film about it along with taking other approaches.

Facebook declared that it has been striving hard to combat fake news in the past and to reduce the spread of false news on the site through technology and human review. On its blogpost, Facebook explained some of the approaches undertaken for this purpose.

The social networking site has made an 11-minute-long film called ‘Facing Facts’, which basically explains the site’s past and present beliefs about intervening in the News Feed. It informs about the challenges involved including maintain neutrality, and also different methods the company uses in response.

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As Engadget explains, the video also focuses on the difficulties faced by the social networking site like the sheer volume of posts from over two billion users. The company claims that it wouldn’t be possible to review everything by hand.

Video Courtesy: Facebook

Besides the short film, Facebook has also broadened its efforts for educating users on spotting fake news in their News Feed and in print ads, which will initially begin in the US before spreading to other countries throughout 2018. They explained that they have released an updated news literacy campaign that will offer people tips for detecting fake news and provide information on the steps taken by the firm.

The video accepts the fact that Facebook has had poor approach in the past regarding spotting of fake news. The company is also expanding its academic commission to request for proposals for studying the level and effects of misinformation on the site. They will then manage a peer review process for selecting which scholars will receive funding for their research, and access to privacy-protected datasets from Facebook. As per the company, this will help keeping them accountable and track their progress with time.