Facebook is introducing
new tools in Germany to help combat the spread of fabricated news stories.
The world's largest
social network said it would enable German users to flag potentially false stories.
The stories will then be passed to third-party fact-checkers and if found to be
unreliable, will be marked in users' news feeds as "disputed".
It is the first major
expansion of the fake news features since Facebook announced tests in the US in December.
"Last month we
announced measures to tackle the challenge of fake news on Facebook," the
company said on Sunday in a German-language statement.
"We will put these
updates in place in Germany in the coming weeks."
Facebook has been widely
criticised after some users complained that fake news had influenced the US
presidential election.
German government officials have
expressed concern that misinformation on the internet could influence the
country's parliamentary election this year.
Last week, the social news site
Buzzfeed found Facebook pages were publishing false stories about German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is seeking re-election.
 |
A migrant takes a selfie with German Chancellor Angela Merkel outside a refugee camp near the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees , Germany September 10, 2015. The Syrian refugee sued Facebook for ‘defamatory’ posts after selfie with Angela Merkel Image Credit: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTSG67
|
German Justice Minister Heiko
Maas has also repeatedly warned about fake news on Facebook, and called on the
firm to respect the country's defamation laws, which are stricter than in the
US.
In the UK, MPs are set to
question executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter about fake news amid
fears it is undermining democracy, according to a report in the Sunday
Telegraph.
Under the new measures, users in
Germany will be able to select "It's a fake news story" as an option
when reporting another user's post.
They can then mark the post as
fake news, let the other user know they think it is fake, or block that user.
Facebook will send potentially
fake stories to Correctiv, a German non-profit body of investigative
journalists, to check the facts.
If they find a story to be false,
it will be marked on Facebook as "disputed" and will appear lower in
users' news feeds.
Facebook is already testing the
system with certain fact-checkers in the US to verify news on its platform.
The fact-checkers must sign up to
a code of principles to take part. There are currently 43 signatories, including
news organisations in several different countries.
As in the US, Facebook Germany
said it was looking into penalising websites, which tried to mimic major
publishers or misled readers into thinking they were a well-known news source.
Last week, Facebook announced new
training and tools that would be made available for journalists on its
platform.
On Thursday, BBC News said it
would expand its Reality Check series to target false stories or facts being
shared widely on social media.
Source:bbc
0 comments:
Post a Comment