UPDATED 00:34 EST / MARCH 30 2018

APPS

Facebook will now fact-check photos and videos to reduce fake news

Facebook Inc. announced Thursday that it has started fact-checking photos and videos, a move that the company said will prevent the spread of doctored images that have been circulating on the platform.

The social media behemoth said it was partnering with Agence France-Presse to start the fact-checking effort in France, which is all part of a larger initiative to scrutinize content and prevent the dissemination of fake news.

The company is looking for partners in other countries, though Facebook didn’t outline a fact-checking methodology. The move is part of an initiative to cut down on specious political news in particular, so it’s more than likely the scrutiny will be related to photos and videos of political figures rather than family pictures.

In a blog post on Thursday, Facebook said it was taking steps to “protect elections from abuse and exploitation,” citing the 2016 U.S. election and bad actors using the platform to seed division in the country.

Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of product management, said the company takes its role in how news is spread seriously. He said the platform is bolstering its efforts to stamp out fake news, fake accounts and foreign entities interfering with politics and provide more ad transparency. This relates to all countries, not just the U.S.

Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, who said last week that he would be leaving the company later this year, said the issue of what is “fake” is complex. Facebook will not only weed out fake identities but also look at ways audiences are sometimes artificially expanded around a certain topic, he said.

“Once we have an understanding of the various kinds of ‘fake’ we need to deal with, we then need to distinguish between motivations for spreading misinformation,” said Stamos. “Because our ability to combat different actors is based upon preventing their ability to reach these goals.”

Stamos added that sowing these seeds of division is for the most part not motivated by the topic itself, but the content is driven by people who “gain financially by driving traffic to sites they own.” He likened the spread of the misinformation to spam but added that the second tier of bad actors was motivated by ideology.

For some time now, the company has been working with fact-checking partners in the U.S. In 2016, Facebook announced that ABC News, AP, FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and Snopes would all help scrutinize news that appears on the platform. Facebook said it now has fact-checking partners in six countries besides France, the most recent Mexico.

Image: Zizzle fizz via Flickr

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