Facebook Anti-Fake News Efforts Seem to Be Working, But Data Will Confirm, Say Journalists

until and unless Facebook publishes these numbers, it's hard to tell," said Alexios Mantzarlis, who leads Poynter's International Fact-Checking Network, during a Society of American Business Editors and Writers webinar on Monday fake news. Facebook, which has gotten the most attention on this issue, launched measures to fight fake news on its site (see 1611210002, 1612150035 and 1701310068). BuzzFeed News media editor Craig Silverman said the measures Facebook and Google are using could be deterring people trying to publish fake content to make money, but he would like to see some data. He defined fake news as having three components: it's completely false, created by someone who knows it's false, and done with an economic motive, whereas propaganda is typically ideologically driven. Fake news has become more prevalent in part because it's easy to launch a website and get ads, he said. Rather than take time to build an audience or niche, "if they just make stuff up and tell people what they want to hear, you can actually earn a decent amount of money," he said. Social networks, media and schools will all need to fight fake news, said Mantzarlis. He said he thinks the internet then will have more context and it will "easier to differentiate between types of information in a way that our news feed and Google searches do not really allow us to do." The Associated Press' Amy Westfeldt said AP ramped up fact checking of disputed stories and writing stories about the financial motivation of fake news and automated ads.