Facebook’s Reform to Combat Fake News
With swirling concerns about so-called fake news growing with the spread of social media, Facebook proposes reforms to confront hate speech, combat fake news and encourage moderation.
Having transformed the way billions of people view news online, Facebook has announced it is removing a large section out of its news feed. Even though Facebook has set a new convention for news publication, as news outlets attempt to gain followers from social media, the company is somewhat distancing itself from the news business.
Facebook's CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg says he's doing right by the people who matter most to him, his users, but many are highly critical of the move. For instance, some critics point out that surveying people will be ineffective because people often like news that is far from objective, fair, and balanced. Other support the move, pointing out that Google utilizes a quality score, so why shouldn’t social networks? But the issue of asking users to decide which news publishers are trustworthy in order to filter out news content — remains highly controversial.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg asserts that his actions are aimed at making sure news consumed on the platform comes from quality, trustworthy news outlets. Yet no plans are forthcoming regarding the release of the “surveys”. Obviously, distilling news down to only “acceptable” news will continue to remain an issue for the foreseeable future.