Facebook on Friday announced that it will ask its 2 billion users to rank their trust in news sources in its latest attempt to combat the spread of misinformation on the social network.
The change comes as the online giant seeks to address charges that it has failed — along with Google and Twitter — to prevent the spread of bogus news, most strikingly ahead of the 2016 US presidential election.
In a Facebook post, cofounder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the network would seek to “prioritize news that is trustworthy, informative and local.”
Photo: AP
“There’s too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarization in the world today,” Zuckerberg said. “Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before and if we don’t specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them.”
The new “trusted sources” ranking, which starts next week, would aim to “make sure the news you see is high quality” and “helps build a sense of common ground” rather than sow division, Zuckerberg said.
To do so, Facebook decided to rely on member surveys as the most “objective” way to rank trust in news sources, he said.
“We could try to make that decision ourselves, but that’s not something we’re comfortable with,” Zuckerberg said. “We considered asking outside experts, which would take the decision out of our hands, but would likely not solve the objectivity problem.”
The new ranking system would hopefully separate news organizations that are only trusted by their readers or watchers from ones that are broadly trusted across society, he said.
“This update will not change the amount of news you see on Facebook,” he said. “It will only shift the balance of news you see towards sources that are determined to be trusted by the community.”
The latest move comes a week after Facebook announced a major update to its user feed that highlights what friends and family share on the network, over advertisements, celebrity and media posts.
The company cast the change as part of a refocus on “community” — prioritizing social interactions and relationships — while acknowledging that it would likely result in people spending less time on the platform.
“For some time, we have argued that Facebook should give priority to news from trusted sources,” David Chavern, head of industry group News Media Alliance, said in a statement. “This would be positive for consumers, as well as help to address ‘fake news’ issues.”
The group will watch how the Facebook ranking changes are implemented and whether they deliver on the social network’s stated goals, Chavern said.
“My hope is that this update about trusted news and last week’s update about meaningful interactions will help make time on Facebook time well-spent,” Zuckerberg said.
Known for annual personal goals ranging from killing his own food to learning Chinese, Zuckerberg’s stated mission for this year is to “fix” the social network.
He plans to target abuse and hate, and interference by nation states.
Meanwhile, British lawmakers probing possible Russian interference in the Brexit referendum revealed this week that Facebook agreed to broaden its own investigation into fake news around the vote, after the social media platform’s initial efforts drew criticism.
The UK House of Commons’ Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee said that Simon Milner, Facebook’s head of policy in Britain, had vowed the company would search for “clusters engaged in coordinated activity around the Brexit referendum” that appeared to have originated in Russia.
It might take several weeks to produce results, Milner said.
The commitment follows demands from MPs for Facebook and Twitter to provide further information on alleged Russian social media meddling in the run-up to the June 2016 referendum.
Executives from the platforms, as well as from Google, are due to give evidence to the parliamentary inquiry next month, when Briths MPs visit the US for the occasion.
Shamans in Peru on Monday gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia proclaimed as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima, dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, and sprinkling flowers on the sand. The shamans carried large posters of world leaders, over which they crossed swords and burned incense, some of which they stomped on. In this
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS