Fake Facebook News

Facebook will do more to tackle fake news, Mark Zuckerberg has said.

16:59 15 November 2016

In a lengthy post on his Facebook profile, Facebook’s chief executive and co-founder,

Mark Zuckerberg has said he hoped to announce measures to tackle fake stories and misinformation on the social media site. 

 

He said: “We don't want any hoaxes on Facebook. Our goal is to show people the content they will find most meaningful, and people want accurate news. We have already launched work enabling our community to flag hoaxes and fake news, and there is more we can do here. We have made progress, and we will continue to work on this to improve further.

 

He also defended Facebook against criticism that it had in any way aided Donald Trump’s presidential election victory. 

 

He explained: After the election, many people are asking whether fake news contributed to the result, and what our responsibility is to prevent fake news from spreading. These are very important questions and I care deeply about getting them right. I want to do my best to explain what we know here.

 

Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99% of what people see is authentic. Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes. The hoaxes that do exist are not limited to one partisan view, or even to politics. Overall, this makes it extremely unlikely hoaxes changed the outcome of this election in one direction or the other.