Facebook To Take Action Against Users Repeatedly Sharing Misinformation

Mumbai: Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it would take “stronger” action against people who repeatedly share misinformation on the platform.

Facebook will reduce the distribution of all posts in its news feed from a user account if it frequently shares content that has been flagged as false by one of the company’s fact-checking partners, the social media giant said in a blog post.

“We are launching new ways to inform people if they’re interacting with content that’s been rated by a fact-checker as well as taking stronger action against people who repeatedly share misinformation on Facebook,”it said

“Whether it’s false or misleading content about Covid19 and vaccines, climate change, elections or other topics, we’re making sure fewer people see misinformation on our apps,” the social media giant said in a statement.

“We will reduce the distribution of all posts in News Feed from an individual’s Facebook account if they repeatedly share content that has been rated by one of our fact-checking partners. We already reduce a single post’s reach in News Feed if it has been debunked,” Facebook noted.

It further said, “We want to give people more information before they like a Page that has repeatedly shared content that fact-checkers have rated, so you’ll see a pop up if you go to like one of these Pages. You can also click to learn more, including that fact-checkers said some posts shared by this Page include false information and a link to more information about our fact-checking program.”

However, Facebook will now allow users on its platform as well as those on Instagram to hide their public ‘like’ counts as part of the company’s efforts to give people control over their experience.

Earlier this year, Facebook said it took down 1.3 billion fake accounts between October and December, ahead of an inspection by the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce into how technology platforms are tackling misinformation.

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