How Facebook is Combating Misinformation
We are all well aware that our social media platforms have become a playground for people looking to embellish new stories for clicks. What once was a place to share your personal experiences with your close friends has become a never-ending feed of misinformation. These unethical habits of sharing information have the potential to cause damage to the uneducated social media user.
Is it the role of Facebook to really stop all of the fake news? What would be the line between limiting freedom of speech and stopping fake news? To me, this seems to be a challenging task, instead, I believe Facebook should focus on educating its users about these potential threats. Education can be our greatest defense against all the fake news.
Luckily, Facebook is providing resources to some of its users in other countries.
For good reason, The United States is usually much slower when it comes to changing any regulations that might infringe on the first amendment. The EU officials have begun to put greater importance on the spread of misinformation on social media. European Foreign Policy chief stated, “the coronavirus pandemic has been accompanied by a massive info-demic”. These statements were made before demanding that social media companies give the EU a monthly fake news report in order to help combat these issues.
Facebook is also providing small in-app features to help everyday users identify potential misinformation. These additions are important and will hopefully serve their purpose of educating the user.
Also, they are partnering with companies like Full Fact, AFP, Mafindo, and others to provide fact-checking on posts with questionable information.
Additionally, there are actions being taken to combat misinformation concerning the Covid-19 vaccine such as the #ChecktheFAQs campaign. The Department of Health(DOH) launched its operation in partnership with social media giants such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, and TikTok
Facebook has provided quality content to almost every person that has used it, whether it was funny news stories or a picture of a relative you haven’t seen in a while. We know the potential that this social media platform has, that is why it is important to educate one another about misinformation on the internet. The more we learn about misinformation, the less the government and social media companies will have to censor our speech.
