As part of its effort to tighten the leash on the spread of misinformation, Facebook will fact-check Photos and Videos prior to the U.S. Midterm Elections, so as to avert the purported negative role it played in the 2016 presidential election.
While Russian trolls were pointed in the abuse of the social network to meddle in the campaigns, the current measures are coming at a time when Facebook is already on the hot seat with the U.S. lawmakers.
According to the company, to curb the spread of misinformation, it will focus on four areas, including: thwarting foreign interference, removal of fake accounts, and ad transparency. Now coupled with the fact-checking of photos and videos, in reducing the spread of fake news.
Facebook has partnered with Agence France-Presse, the French news provider to roll out the authentication process in France, and promising that more countries will follow soon.
The company claims that millions of fake accounts are blocked each day, with the help of machine learning, which accounts engages in different types of activity that is deemed inappropriate by the social network.
And the ongoing media backlash over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, makes the current effort but one in a million of tasks before the social networking platform.
Other measures include the understanding of the different context of misinformation: like false identities and false facts. Albeit perhaps, it isn't just for the U.S. elections, but in every other countries, by localizing Facebook's efforts to tackle their specific problems.
No comments