Facebook Is Finally Banning Fake News
Over the past week, we’ve talked repeatedly about how tech mattered this election season. Whether it was in predicting polls or uniting people in the aftermath, we all discussed the results in a digital forum. But one of the most persistently talked-about tech stories has been the influence of fake news on Facebook. Although Mark Zuckerberg has been adamant that he believes fake news circulating on Facebook did absolutely nothing to sway the election, the social network is now taking steps to combat these fake sites.
Facebook has now banned fake news sites from making money on its advertising platform. Fake news joins the ranks of pornography, gambling, weapon sales and spy cameras in the list of things that are banned from the Facebook Audience Network. (Google proceeded in a similar manner, banning fake news sites from making money via Google AdSense.)
While Facebook will no longer allow these sites to make money on the network, they are not banning the circulation of fake news. The social network is still not addressing the fact that its algorithm allows fake news to spread even more quickly once people start calling it out for being fake. Facebook still has a long way to go in addressing the fake news epidemic, but hopefully this first ban indicates a step toward a future with the accurate spread of information.
Did Facebook influence your election season? Let us know @BritandCo!
(h/t Quartz; photo via Hero Images / Getty)