Facebook’s effort to stop the spread of propaganda and misinformation just isn’t working

The Facebook part of each breaking news cycle is pretty familiar to journalists: A story breaks, and it seems just a matter of time until a false or misleading bit of information appears on Facebook’s “trending” section or otherwise makes its way around the platform with alarming speed.

Facebook’s fake news problem, which the company initially downplayed, was on display during the 2016 election, when the platform was found to have enabled propaganda and profitable lies to spread to millions of people. 

In theory, Facebook has taken steps to prevent this. They’re partnered with journalists at the Associated Press, FactCheck.org, and others to verify the truth of supposed news items on Facebook. When something doesn’t meet the journalists’ standards, that story gets a “disputed” tag.  Read more…

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