Meta (Facebook) Approach to Misinformation: Partnering with Third-Party Fact-Checkers

Meta (Facebook) Approach to Misinformation: Partnering with Third-Party Fact-Checkers

• Facebook and Meta and its campaign to clear the rot of hate speech, misinformation and violent content on social media

To fight the spread of fake news Social Media giants have been trying a series of tests to limit hate speech, misinformation and violent content and have partnered with independent third-party fact-checkers globally who are certified through the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).

The IFCN, a subsidiary of the journalism research organization Poynter Institute, is dedicated to bringing together fact-checkers worldwide.

The step is to reduce the spread of misinformation and provide more reliable information to users. The focus is to address viral misinformation – provably false claims, particularly those that have the potential to mislead or harm.

Fact-checking partners are able to review content across both Facebook and Instagram, including organic & boosted posts. They can also review videos, images, links or text-only posts.

Fathom this, in today’s era, every person uses social media, but the general public is being served a huge amount of lies on these platforms, especially at the time of elections. These false and misleading claims are being spread through the IT cells of all the political parties, and being journalists, it is our first duty to take action against them or help remove such content.

We spend many hours every day watching reels on Facebook and Instagram so when we have an opportunity to make the platform, and our societies, a little better why not take it?”

A lot of content floating on social media platforms is a classic case of the worst kinds of hate speech, misinformation and violent content that miss the tech filters of the social media giants.

But they are committed and dedicated in their task to stem the rot and clean up their platforms and protect their users from the hate speech, misinformation and violent content.

It’s a complex, nuanced and evolving process that needs to find the balance between encouraging expression and promoting a safe and welcoming community.

People who are associated with the project and contribute to it know that it is an important and difficult work.

So, their work is cut out, what they have to do is to inform the company they are working for about any post/comment on Facebook and Instagram that is either hate speech, misinformation or a call to violence, and quickly share the link via WhatsApp or email.

They then forward this to Meta via a dedicated Trusted Partner Channel and inform the concerned person if and when an action is taken.

• Companies working with Meta

The companies recruited by Meta have a wide network of journalists spread across the country from various backgrounds, age groups, communities, leanings and perspectives. Blessed with such resources they are looking to tap into their rich network to find and flag problematic posts that actively harm our communities and make the platforms, and by extension our real worlds, a little bit more toxic, intolerant and unreliable.

• Journalism challenges

Journalism and its fraternity also owe a duty on fact-checking responsibilities for its features and enterprise pieces.

They also need to develop a syllabus to train in-house editors, reporters, and regular contributing reporters on the fundamentals of getting facts right in stories

There is a need for a budget for freelance fact-checkers depending on the requirement to check additional stories.

• IFCN’s Code of Principles

The IFCN’s Code of Principles include a series of commitments that organizations must adhere to in order to promote excellence in fact-checking:

Nonpartisanship and Fairness

Transparency of Sources

Transparency of Funding and Organization

Transparency of Methodology

Open and Honest Corrections Policy