Fake news reports are very annoying to deal with, both for involved parties and the general public reading them. Google and Facebook have come up with a solution to dissuade sites from posting fake articles, as these places will be prohibited from accessing advertising platforms. This is a significant step in the right direction, although a lot of questions remain unanswered.
No More Financial Incentives For Clickbait News
Any site found guilty of spreading false or misleading news will be blocked by both Google and Facebook. That means advertising through either platform will become impossible for those site owners. Keeping in mind how popular Google Adsense is among site owners, such a decision could have significant repercussions, to say the least.
Some people have raised concerns over false news influencing the 2016 US Presidential elections. Whether or not that is the case, remains subject to speculation for the time being. It is true that some very odd news has been circulating in the week leading up to the voting process, that much is certain.
What is even more troublesome is how the majority of false news is spread through Facebook, allowing owners to rake in a lot of revenue in the process. Moreover, Facebook is quickly becoming one of the primary news-sharing platforms, making it even harder to distinguish between the truth and misleading information.
For the time being, there is no clear guideline on how either company will “flag” misleading news. It is remarkable to see both of these technology giants address this problem at the same time, though. Up until this point, neither company had any plans to undertake action against misleading news sites.
Buzzfeed mentions how Facebook will be looking into ways to remove false news from users’ timelines in the future, as well. A working group has been created to look into these matters, yet specifics remain elusive for the time being. Some people may see this as an invasive measure by the social media platform, though it does make some sense to take such actions.
What is rather interesting is how these changes will only affect the United States, for the time being. It is expected that both companies will introduce similar measures in the rest of the world over time. False news leads certainly have to be weeded out, as do those who would make money from them.
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