(2016-11-14) Facebooks Fight Against Fake News Was Undercut By Fear Of Conservative Backlash

Facebook's Fight Against Fake News Was Undercut by Fear of Conservative Backlash

Gizmodo has learned that the company is, in fact, concerned about the issue, and has been having a high-level internal debate since May about how the network approaches its role as the largest news distributor in the US.

One source said high-ranking officials were briefed on a planned News Feed update that would have identified fake or hoax news stories, but disproportionately impacted right-wing news sites by downgrading or removing that content from people’s feeds. According to the source, the update was shelved and never released to the public. It’s unclear if the update had other deficiencies that caused it to be scrubbed.

In an emailed statement, Facebook did not answer Gizmodo’s direct questions about whether the company built a News Feed update that was capable of identifying fake or hoax news stories, nor whether such an update would disproportionately impact right-wing or conservative-leaning sites.

A New York Times report published Saturday cited conversations with current Facebook employees and stated that “The Trending Topics episode paralyzed Facebook’s willingness to make any serious changes to its products that might compromise the perception of its objectivity.” Our sources echoed the same sentiment, with one saying Facebook had an “internal culture of fear” following the Trending Topics episode.

Facebook’s efforts have had mixed results. Earlier this year, Buzzfeed News studied thousands of fake news posts published on Facebook, and found that while the average engagement on fake posts fell considerably from January 2015 to December 2015, the reach of fake posts skyrocketed in 2016, during the lead-up to the presidential election.