Facebook will ask its two billion users to rank the trust of different news sites. The measure is part of the online giant’s fight against false news.
In a Facebook post, the company’s founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg wrote that they want to ‘prioritise news issues that are to be trusted’. He also stated that local and informative content will be prioritised.
‘There are too many sensational news stories, and too much disinformation and polarisation in the world today.
Social media allows people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don’t take care of these issues,we will end up reinforcing them’, wrote the top boss.
The new ranking of trusted sources’ starts next week.
Facebook has considered several ways to select the most trusted news sites, but found that the most ‘objective’ was to ask users.
‘We could have tried to make this decision ourselves, but that’s not something we’re comfortable with. We considered asking external experts who could take the decision out of our hands, but it would probably not have solved the problem of objectivity,’ said Zuckerberg.
Both Facebook and other online giants like Google, and Twitter, have received a lot of criticism for contributing to the spread of fake news, especially after the US presidential election in 2016.
The new ranking system is one of several planned changes on Facebook. Last week, it became known that the company will come with a new update that allows news flow to prioritise posts from friends and family in front of other content.
‘When we make these updates, you will see less common content,such as from businesses, brands, and media’, wrote Zuckerberg when this news was released.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
