Mark Zuckerberg Shares Facebook's Plan to Combat Fake News
A complex challenge for the social networking site “both technically and philosophically.”
In the wake of the U.S. presidential elections, the rise of fake news sites have proved to be a pertinent issue worth addressing by Facebook. While CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially downplayed claims of the social media’s influence over the election, he has now issued a public post detailing a number of steps the company is taking in order to combat misinformation.
The challenge remains difficult, though, as the platform aims to give people the opportunity to voice and share ideas freely. Zuckerberg stated, “We need to be careful not to discourage sharing of opinions or mistakenly restricting accurate content. We do not want to be arbiters of truth ourselves, but instead rely on our community and trusted third parties.” Through measures including fact-checking verification, better detection of false sites and stricter ads standards for spam sites, Facebook hopes to improve the accuracy of information being distributed on people’s feeds. Zuckerberg mentioned that while some of these options may or may not work, the company is taking this matter very seriously.
