Facebook today announces its collaboration with Open as an independent fact-checker for Italy. Open, through the Fact-checking section coordinated by David Puente, has recently been certified through the independent organization International Fact-Checking Network, and joins Political report card, Facebook partner in Italy since January 2018. Together they will help fight the spread of disinformation on Facebook and Instagram in Italy. In fact, giving people more information about what they see online is essential to help them decide what to read, what to believe and what to share.
Facebook collaborates with Open for fact checking
Since 2016, Facebook has been collaborating with independent fact-checking partners to identify and combat disinformation on its platforms. The number of partners has almost tripled over the years and today Facebook works with more than 80 independent fact-checkers worldwide, that analyze content in over 60 different languages. These partners have all been certified through the International Fact-Checking Network.
Whenever a fact-checker evaluates a content as fake, Facebook significantly reduces content distribution, so that fewer people see it, and warns people who have previously shared the content or try to share it that the information is false. It also applies a warning label to the content that refers to the analysis made by the fact-checker.
Facebook also recently announced some updates to the program by introducing two new classifications available to fact-checkers: “Altered”, for videos and images that have been manipulated (but do not necessarily qualify for removal under Community Standards). , and “Contextless” for content that is not entirely false but can be misleading without additional context. These changes provide fact-checkers with more options to better reflect their analyzesi, and ensure that people who come across these posts have more accurate information to decide what to read, trust and share.
Finally, Pages and Groups that repeatedly share content classified as False or Altered by fact-checkers will see their distribution reduced will be removed from recommendations and Pages will lose the ability to monetize and advertise.
Facebook’s strategy to combat disinformation
Facebook’s strategy to combat disinformation is based on three points:
- to remove Content that violates Facebook and Instagram Community Standards or ad policies.
- reduce the visibility of fake news and inauthentic content.
- information people by giving them more context on the posts they see
This strategy has been particularly important in addressing health-related disinformation. Since the start of the pandemic, Facebook has removed over 20 million content who violated the rules on disinformation related to COVID-19 and vaccines. The warning labels have been applied to more than 190 million pieces of content. When a warning label is applied to a post, 95% of the time people don’t open that content.
Facebook has also removed over 3,000 accounts, pages and groups for repeatedly violating its rules against spreading disinformation about COVID-19. and vaccines. Additionally, the company provided authoritative information to promote vaccination consent, connecting 2 billion people with health authority resources through the COVID-19 Information Center and Facebook pop-ups.