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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.

2 of 474 comments (clear)

  1. Who determines what is fake news? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Serious question.

  2. Re: They're neither "outside" nor "fact-checkers" by Evtim · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Don't be silly, you know what he meant. The hilarity is he is correct....I grew up in communist state and they used to scream 'fascist, nazi' against all 'enemies of the people'. It is absolutely the worst offence imaginable.
    What is even more unimaginable is that western societies are having that kind of discussions ATM. You have no idea how crazy this is for people with my background...
    All of this only reaffirms my conclusion that:
    1. Western governments are the same self serving greedy totalitarian asses as the so-called communists
    2. Western people do not have developed sence of freedom in stark contrast of their professed beliefs. You guys love 'might makes right' and you love oppresing others in your society. I see more totalitarian minded people on /. than old time Russia. And if I look at a more mundane site e.g. YouTube the situation is nothing short of disastrous.
    Shame, shame, shame....