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Facebook Pages Spreading Fake News Won't Be Able To Buy Ads (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the money-maker dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Facebook says it's taking another step against Pages that share fabricated news stories. The company has already been working with outside fact-checkers like Snopes and the AP to flag inaccurate news stories. (These aren't supposed to be stories that are disputed for reasons of opinion or partisanship, but rather outright hoaxes and lies.) It also says that when a story is marked as disputed, the link can can no longer be promoted through Facebook ads. The next step, which the company is announcing today, involves stopping Pages that regularly share these stories from buying any Facebook ads at all, regardless of whether or not the ad includes a disputed link. In this case, Leathern said blocking ad-buying is meant to change the economic incentives. Facebook is concerned that "there are Pages posting this information that are using Facebook Ads to build audiences" to spread false news. By changing the ad policy, Facebook makes it harder for companies to attract that audience.

3 of 474 comments (clear)

  1. The great censoring has begun by johannesg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And any valid potlical opinion 'people' might disagree with will be labeled 'extremist', 'alt-right', 'racist', 'inciting hatred', or simply 'nazi', and disappeared, no matter if it is actually true or not. And whoever controls the censors gets to decide what is true and what is not.

    1. Re:The great censoring has begun by geekymachoman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > And any valid potlical opinion 'people' might disagree with will be labeled 'extremist', 'alt-right', 'racist', 'inciting hatred', or simply 'nazi', and disappeared, no matter if it is actually true or not. And whoever controls the censors gets to decide what is true and what is not.

      It'll not work because every year more and more people are getting pissed off at those that label everything they disagree with as racist, alt right, nazi, etc, and there's already a number of them that you cannot ignore, and this number is growing.

      It grew to a point where these people elected president who's a bit of an idiot, out of spite. They say they believe in Trump, but in reality... they just really dislike political establishment, the left, CNN, Clinton's and their breed. More they call people nazis, more quasi anti-fascist groups like Antifa, or whiny racists like BLM that call everybody else racist (even black people that don't agree with them), more power they give to those they oppose.

      All attempts to quiet down, censor, and beat other people because their different opinions will eventually die.

    2. Re:The great censoring has begun by ArylAkamov · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Damn straight. I've already been labeled a "free speech nazi" and have had people try to dox me on there (Good thing I paid attention in school and never use any identifiable information, back when that was taught).

      If advocating for free speech and railing against censorship of any political opinion or ideology makes me a Nazi, sign me up for the SS.