Facebook is going to use Snopes and other fact checkers to combat fake news

a reply to: xuenchen

As usual, huh?

a reply to: Vasa Croe


hysterical you think this is the fault of "libs". LOL

a reply to: Swills

I support the communication of all information and feel I have a personal responsibility to vet information FOR MYSELF....regardless of the bringer of the information. I do NOT want anyone else doing that job for me.

The conservatives on ATS often echo each other and so do the liberals. I am still ok with that as an independent.

originally posted by: knoxie
a reply to: Vasa Croe


hysterical you think this is the fault of "libs". LOL

Fault of the "libs"...nah....only thing I fault the masses of them for is being gullible enough to not think for themselves and feel entitled to everything. It is the ones that FUND the agenda that I fault. The ones that force feed it to them, like Facebook is about to do.....that is who I fault. See....this single story is THE very downfall of critical thinking. This is the VERY reason HRC did not win....people are starting to wake up to the fact that they are being force fed information. It is hard to initially face the fact that what you have been told isn't true, it is harder still to begin to discern things you read and hear as fact or fiction. Critical thinking is what is needed. Taking away that component for the public is a brilliant move by the left, especially passing it off as keeping out fake news.....well then...is there some oversight committee that is making sure they are being non-biased? FB DOES work with the US government in many fashions. Seems there is a conflict of interests here to me....push the agenda and you stay on top, don't and you sink.

The funniest part to me is this:

"Facebook is the only organization certifying third party fact-checkers on its platform." Facebook has given its four initial fact-checking partners access to a tool that will let them label stories in the News Feed as fake, a Facebook spokesperson said. The person said Facebook is not paying the organizations to fact-check.

The websites that Facebook determines to be fake news organizations or spoofed domains will also not be able to sell ads on the social network. Owners of fake-news sites can make thousands of dollars per month through internet ads.

Facebook has repeatedly said that it's not a media company, but rather an open technology platform that relies on media publishers and its users to share accurate information.

“We do not think of ourselves as editors," Patrick Walker, Facebook's head of media partnerships, said during a recent journalism conference in Dublin. "We believe it’s essential that Facebook stay out of the business of deciding what issues the world should read about. That’s what editors do.”

Politicians such as President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have recently expressed concern about the prevalence of misinformation on social media, with Obama calling it a "dust cloud of nonsense" and Clinton calling it "an epidemic."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has meanwhile gone so far as to say that it's "pretty crazy" for some to suggest that fake news on Facebook could have swayed the election in favor of either candidate.

But after facing significant backlash for its denial to fact-check stories on its network, Zuckerberg now calls Facebook a "new kind of platform" with a responsibility to "build a space where people can be informed."

"Facebook is a new kind of platform different from anything before it. I think of Facebook as a technology company, but I recognize we have a greater responsibility than just building technology that information flows through," the Facebook founder said in a Thursday post.

"While we don't write the news stories you read and share, we also recognize we're more than just a distributor of news. We're a new kind of platform for public discourse — and that means we have a new kind of responsibility to enable people to have the most meaningful conversations, and to build a space where people can be informed."

So a recap on this....FB is the ONLY one that is certifying these fact checkers (they pick them). They are giving these "third-party" fact checkers a tool to directly access and mark stories as fake (hmmmmm....).

FB repeats it is NOT a media company (interesting) and that it should stay out of the business of censoring what readers read (oddly conflicting to what they are doing). Then Zuckerberg makes a statement that FB is a new kind of platform with a responsibility to build a space where people can be informed....well that kinda sounds like a media or news organization doesn't it?

Then he says they are more than just a distributor of news....so they are basically trying to become a giant censorship organization for the masses?

Anywho...that was WAY too long of an explanation for your simple one liner but I felt a need to explain a bit.