Facebook Plans to Focus on Issues Including Fake News

In a blog post from last October when I attended the PRSA International Conference in Boston, I wrote a recap about fake news from a session called “In the Era of Fake News, How to Keep Your Brand’s Content Credible,” by Lisa Arledge Powell, president of MediaSource & Bob Mackle, director of media relations at OSUWMC.
Even earlier in 2017, I wrote a blog post titled, “What is Fake News and What is Opinion?” So I loved it when I came across the article, “Mark Zuckerberg’s New Year’s resolution is to solve Facebook’s issues,” from Tim Peterson in Marketing Land.

What are Zuckerberg’s plans for protecting against Fake News?

The premise of the article is that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is recognizing the issues that Facebook has when it comes to advertising control. This includes “protecting our community from abuse and hate, defending against interference by nation states, or making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent.” And specifically the use of ads to “spread fake news…” Basically the fact that anyone can purchase ads that can and will promote hate against others and spread fake news is too easy.
It will be a big undertaking for Facebook to stop hate and fake news, especially when it comes to rejecting money in order to do so. I applaud Facebook for this attempt and I look forward to seeing the results at the end of the year. If it is successful I am hopeful that others will take notice and follow suit.