Facebook Canada announced this week that it will be fighting fake news on its platform.
The initiative will be part of Facebook’s Elections Integrity Initiative, in collaboration with Agence France-Presse. Each piece of news will be reviewed in English and French and rated according to its accuracy.
Facebook is trying to shake off its image as fake news provider ever since Russians have interfered with US presidential elections in 2016. Russians have created divisive content on Facebook and Instagram to steer elections. Russian government has denied any wrong doing in this case.
Facebook Canada hires independent fact checkers to combat "fake news." That is, IF this headline can be trusted.
— 22Minutes (@22_Minutes) June 27, 2018
Facebook Canada said that if story is rated as false, it will state so under the article. The articles will be defined as being true, false or offering inaccurate or misleading information. Facebook users “will be informed if a story they shared on Facebook has been rated as false.”
Facebook Canada’s head of public policy, Kevin Chan, said
“The AFP fact-checkers could find [misleading stories] by themselves. They will also rely on individuals, Canadians who are on Facebook, reporting these things to us. The third way, over time, will be [artificial intelligence] tools that will be able to proactively identify them.”
Facebook stock have recently reached an all time high of $201 while Instagram if valued by itself is valued at $100b+.
