Can CrowdTangle Help Facebook Track Fake Stories?

FB: Facebook logo
FB
Facebook

Recently, CrowdTangle, a start-up that tracks how links are shared on social media platforms, announced that it was being acquired by Facebook (NASDAQ:FB). CrowdTangle is a popular tool with publishers that allows them to identify great stories, measure social performance and identify influencers. With this acquisition, Facebook will be able to leverage this tool on its network, providing publishers with the ability to track how their content is being shared and deliver insights on it performance. This tool can help Facebook tackle another critical problem of fake news spreading over its platform. In the recent past, Facebook has been criticized for misleading content on its platform because its News Feed algorithm cannot distinguish between an accurate story and a fabricated one. With an increasing number of users relying on Facebook for their daily news consumption, accuracy of content on the platform is of paramount importance.  CrowdTangle can help Facebook track fake stories and take necessary action to prevent them from spreading.  We believe that strengthening the News Feed algorithm and placing additional checks to identify fabricated news will be critical to ensure the authenticity of the platform.

See our complete analysis for Facebook

Content Accuracy Critical For Growth

Relevant Articles
  1. Beating S&P500 BY 11% YTD, What To Expect From Travelers Stock?
  2. Up 50% Over The Last 12 Months, Is Hyatt Stock Still Attractive?
  3. Capital One Stock Gained 44% In The Last 6 Months, What’s Next?
  4. Up 8% Year To Date As 5G Gains Traction, What’s Next For Verizon Stock?
  5. Up 32% In The Last 12 Months, Where Is BNY Mellon Stock Headed?
  6. Rallying 30% YTD, What’s Spurring The Rally In Applied Materials’ Stock?

While Facebook started off as a social network, where users could get “news” about their friends, it is now increasingly looking like a media company, with many users getting their daily news on its platform. According to Pew Research, 62% of  U.S. adults get news on social media and two-thirds of Facebook users get news on its site.  Given Facebook’s huge user base and high engagement levels, the accuracy of this content on its News Feed is critical for users to rely on its platform. For the company to attract more publishers on its network, it is essential that their content does not get overshadowed by hyped fake news, impacting the overall credibility of the platform.

Facebook is taking several measures to attract publishers to its network.  THese include revenue sharing arrangements, an experimental ad unit for live video, a greater variety of ads on Facebook Instant Articles, and more robust analytics for native advertisements.  With an increasing number of users relying on Facebook for news and other related articles, driving content through publishers can be a key growth driver for the company. As the readership of these articles increases, advertising revenues will grow in the long term. Through the acquisition of CrowdTangle, Facebook is looking to provide publishers on its network with tools to track their content online, provide insights on which stories are doing better and measure the social performance of the content. This acquistion should drive publisher related content on its platform and potentially improve the accuracy of its content. Facebook could potentially use this tool to track fake news and eliminate it from its platform. However this tool alone might not be enough to handle this critical issue. Facebook needs to put checks in place which are able to differentiate between accurate and fabricated content on its platform.

With the acquisition of CrowdTangle, Facebook will be able to attract more publishers to its platform, since it gives them the ability to track their content and identify better performing content. Additional insights by using the tool can allow publishers to modify their content to suit the needs of the target users. While this tool can also help track fake news, we believe Facebook needs to do more to handle this issue and protect the credibility of its platform.

See More at Trefis | View Interactive Institutional Research (Powered by Trefis)

Get Trefis Technology