How Big Is The Fake News Problem For Facebook ?
Reports suggest that German authorities are contemplating heavy penalties on Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) for a fake news item that is not addressed within 24 hours. This comes on the heels of allegations that fake news on social media impacted the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. While Facebook announced a plan to address this problem, the credibility of its platform is critical for user growth and engagement, which in turn drives advertising revenues for the company. Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes “engagement” and fake stories which are surprising attract more user attention, thus engaging them better. This leads to wider circulation of these stories. Facebook’s plan to tackle this problem is to empower users so that they can report fake stories and spammers’ financial incentives can be disrupted. While Facebook claims that 99% of the content on its platform is authentic, independent sources have not quantified the extent of fake news on Facebook. However, given that fake stories are more viral (designed to be that way) than regular content, we believe ensuring the authenticity of content on its platform is critical for Facebook’s growth.
See our complete analysis for Facebook
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Reputation Loss Can Impact Growth
According to Pew Research, 62% of U.S. adults get their 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 putting the onus on its user community to identify and report fake news or flag stories as disputed. The company is working with third party fact checking organizations to check the authenticity of disputed stories to take necessary action. It is also tweaking its News Feed algorithm to ensure that disputed stories appear lower in the user’s News Feed to ensure that they don’t spread faster. The user will get a warning before sharing the story stating that it is disputed. The company has also eliminated the ability to spoof domains, which will reduce the prevalence of sites that pretend to be real publications. It is also analyzing publisher sites to detect where policy enforcement actions are necessary.
With a user base of 1.7 billion and growing, Facebook has a key challenge in monitoring content on its platform. As it looks to incorporate articles and stories in addition to personal content shared by users, it has to work towards ensuring the authenticity of the content published on its site. The company is indeedmtaking measures to handle this issue. Yet whether this will have an impact on the fake stories in its platform remains to be seen. However, these measures will impact user perception about Facebook, bolstering its reputation.
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