Over the past year Facebook has taken steps to reduce the number of fake news and hoaxes that happen to appear on its users' News Feed.
With an update to its tools, Facebook is fighting fake news by blocking ads on their Pages. Previously, Facebook doesn't allow advertisers to run ads that link to stories that have been marked as fake news by its third-party fact checkers.
The update is to block any ads to appear on Pages that repeatedly promote fake news. Facebook hopes that without revenue, those fake news publishers won't be that happy to spam its News Feed anymore.
Two Facebook product managers explained that this will help stem the tide of false stories, as it will cut off any potential cash reward a Page receives by advertising such stories:
For Facebook, fake news poses harm to its community. It makes users less informed and misled. Altogether, this will erode people's trust on the social giant. Facebook is working to fight the spread of fake news in three key areas:
- Disrupting the economic incentives to create false news.
- Building new products to curb the spread of false news.
- Helping people make more informed decisions when they encounter false news.
When Facebook first announced its plans to limit fake news in 2016, it did mentioned about cutting of the cash flow to fake news publishers. But at that time, the social giant didn't say how it would do it.
Adam Mosseri, VP of News Feed, said it was easy to spot the true motives of the people who ran such Pages:
Those Pages that have been blocked from showing ads on might be allowed to advertise again, if they stop sharing fake news. But Facebook didn't specifically say how long the Page would have to comply before Facebook changed its mind.