Facebook partners with several third-party fact checkers in India to curb circulation of false news in social media. The partners include Today Group, Vishvas.news, Factly, Newsmobile, and Fact Crescendo, which were all certified through an international fact-checking network. They will review news stories posted on Facebook for their accuracy, and if deemed inaccurate, their distribution will be reduced by 80%. The move is timely -- India is gearing up for its general elections in May 2019.
News-checking will not be limited to English-only news. It will be extended to include news in regional languages as well like English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi.
Fact checks have a goal of moving false news to the bottom of users' News Feeds, which would significantly reduce their distribution. Pages and websites that repeatedly shared false news would have their ability to advertise and monetize removed, Facebook added.
This is going to be a long term commitment as false news makers are always reinventing their strategies, so Facebook needs to stay ahead of the game with their tools and technology.
False news will not be just flagged, but fact checkers will also be able to write articles giving users more information on the false news that they may share.