After countless complaints, Facebook will start penalizing users who repeatedly share fake news . In addition, the social network announced that it will take a more active role to publicly identify the pages that regularly spread disinformation.
The long-awaited measures are aimed at preventing Facebook users from continuing to share erroneous, misleading and malicious content. In this way, the service hopes to limit the continuous viralization of false news , especially those related to sensitive issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines, climate change and elections, among others.
It is clear that the announcement of Facebook is very late , but it is still important. Millions of people around the world consume information that is shared through the social network on a daily basis. For this reason, it is necessary to have real control tools, not only applicable to the content itself, but also to the pages and accounts that disseminate it.
Facebook will indicate which pages share false news regularly
One of the first measures reported by Facebook is related to providing context about the pages that share erroneous content . When users want to follow one of them, the social network will display a notice stating that “independent content checkers” have found multiple posts with false claims.
That way, people can go back, follow the page anyway, or review the posts in question. In the latter case, the revised information is included in contrast to the erroneous data published and the publication can be eliminated, in case the user has shared it in their personal profile.
Personal accounts that share erroneous or misleading information will be penalized
Facebook also promises to be tougher on personal accounts that repeatedly share fake news . In this case, the “punishment” for users who spread disinformation will be a reduction in the reach of their posts. This means that the content will be visible to a smaller number of people and, therefore, less viralizable.
The social network has also updated the notifications so that they are more complete and understandable in these types of situations. The truth is that, after a long wait, Facebook seems to have been campaigning to really fight against fake news . We will see if actions of this type are enough and have the effect intended by the company led by Mark Zuckerberg.
