Facebook has announced a new plan to prioritize high-quality news on its platform. The social media giant will allow users to rank news sources that they see as the most trustworthy and reliable. The move is part of a massive overhaul at Facebook designed to provide a better user experience for everyone. It will also have massive implications on the amount of news consumed on the platform.
It’s very likely that there will be more preference on established news sources as smaller, less known outlets will be pushed out. Experts argue that this will not necessarily solve the distortion of news and misinformation seen on the social media platform. After all, even big authority news sources have in some cases published half-truths and untrue accounts of events on Facebook.
Facebook has been taking a lead role in controlling the kind of content that can be published on its platform. This is an issue that has disappointed many publishers on the platform. Nonetheless, Facebook has often been accused of not doing enough to fight fake news. It seems that the company is now acting but whether this will work or not is subject to debate.
The company admitted just last year that Russian agents had used Facebook’s platform to send polarizing and divisive posts, especially during the 2016 general election. The platform was also under fire after it failed to prevent misinformation about the then-candidate Hillary Clinton. Other social media sites like Twitter have also been on the spot for not doing much to prevent misinformation and fake news on their platforms.
Many publishers on Facebook are wondering whether the idea of crowdsourcing user’s opinions on what they deem as trusted news sources will be objective enough. The argument here is that the objectivity of users to decide which sites are trustworthy can be manipulated by interested parties.
Users usually trust news sources that tend to agree or take softer stands on their points of view as opposed to sites that actually tell the truth as it is. Publishers who try to maintain an objective tone and some level of neutrality in their posts will have a hard time competing with this.
The issue of censorship has also been raised. The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur David Kaye sought to know what Facebook would do if users vote a news source as trustworthy yet the same source is censored in their country. It’s a very common practice in many parts of the world to see government censorship on media. Government control of the press is also prominent. How Facebook will navigate through these issues is easier said than done.
However, it’s not the first time that Facebook is putting in place measures to filter news feeds as per the requirements of users. However, this has not worked well in the past. Many experts feel that it’s the responsibility of Facebook to decide which sources are legitimate. Leaving this to users is a slippery slope that may not lead to the expected results.
