Nowadays the social platforms constitute a huge source of information, which can take on different shades. Everything can fall apart when the quality of this information turns out to be low , contributing and encouraging the spread of fake news.
Facebook understands how important it is to fight disinformation and has just released a new update regarding its efforts. In particular, the social media giant has carried out a campaign of removal of fake accounts , which are among the major sources of sharing and generation of disinformation: only between October and December 2020 have they been well removed 1.3 billion of fake accounts, an absurd number even though it fell in the context of the diffusion of the social network.
Furthermore, Facebook has opposed over 100 organizations possibly related to the structured generation of fake news. Among the entities opposed by Facebook there are also those who adopt clickbait strategies on social media , also removed thanks to the support of artificial intelligence. Facebook has also paid attention to marking fake news content shared by unaware users , limiting its dissemination. In this context, Facebook nevertheless found that 95% of users do not consult the warning relating to potential misinformation affixed to the content.
The issues on which Facebook is producing the greatest efforts in the fight against disinformation are the COVID-19 , the political elections 2020 in the United States and climate change . Fake news flocks in these three current branches, also fueled by news that is fundamentally not fake but studded with headlines and clickbait approaches .
To those who accuse Facebook of having interests in disinformation, the social network responded with a practical example: in 2018 it adopted measures to reduce the spread of fake news, acting directly on the diffusion of posts on the feed. This measure led to a reduction in the time , equal to 5%, spent on the social network by users in the quarter immediately following that of the introduction of the new measures.
