Facebook Fake News Filter Campaign Launched in France

Following a fake news filter campaign similar to the initiative launched in the United States last year, Facebook is cracking down on fake news reporting in France, ahead of the presidential election to be held later in April 2017. A similar initiative by Facebook was also set up in Germany last month due to the increasing number of hate speech online and fake news stories that are deemed a threat to the parliamentary election in September, where Angela Merkel is seeking a fourth term. Google is also part of the initiative to filter out fake news results on their search engine. The filter works by flagging articles (done by regular readers), which is then sent to a portal that eight French media companies have access to so it can be assessed and fact-checked. The media partners with Facebook include Le Monde, Agence France-Presse (AFP), BFM-TV, Franceinfo, France Médias Monde, L’Express, Libération, and 20 Minutes. It only requires two confirmations from any of the eight and it will be flagged as disputed on Facebook’s news feed and users will receive a warning prior to sharing it. All advertising will also be blocked on flagged articles.

In addition to the system implemented by Facebook and its partners, Facebook will also support initiatives that will allow users to submit questions from 16 other French Media partners called CrossCheck. This initiative was launched by the First Draft News coalition with support from Google News Lab. Some of the partners themselves have initiatives of their own including Le Monde who has compiled a blacklist of more than 600 websites that have been deemed unreliable.

The recent efforts by Facebook is a response to the criticism levied against the social media company after the recent US presidential election. Many have accused Facebook for not curtailing the problem of false news reporting and misinformation dissemination on its platform so they are trying to make up with the upcoming elections in Europe.