Facebook cracks down on fake news in South Africa

Facebook has hired Africa Check and AFP to try to crack down on the sharing of fake news on the social media platform in South Africa.

At a press conference at the company’s offices in Johannesburg on Thursday, the company – which has come under severe criticism this year, particularly in the US, for carrying false information on its platform – said it is aiming to reduce the spread of misinformation in South Africa.

Africa Check is an independent fact-checking organisation, while AFP is a new organisation. “Both are part of a global effort of fact-checking organisations, certified by the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network,” the social network company said in a statement.

It said its new fact-checking programme relies on feedback from its users, as one of many signals it uses to raise potentially false stories to fact-checkers for review.

“Local articles will be fact-checked alongside the verification of photos and videos. If one of our fact-checking partners identifies a story as false, Facebook will show it lower in News Feed, significantly reducing its distribution.”

“We’re committed to South Africa and take our responsibility seriously in tackling the spread of false news and helping to improve the quality of information people find on our platform,” said Southern Africa public policy manager Emilar Gandhi.

“Once a fact-checker rates a piece of content as false, we’re able to reduce its future views by an average of 80%, helping to curb economic incentives and reduce its spread,” she said.

When third-party fact-checkers write articles about a news story, Facebook will show these in “related articles” immediately below the story in News Feed. Page admins and people on Facebook will also receive notifications if they try to share a story or have shared one in the past that’s been determined to be false.  — © 2018 NewsCentral Media