Facebook to send users fake news alerts: Report

Facebook is working on a programme that will check for fake news on its platform and alert users as soon as they view it, according to a report by The Economic Times.

The fake news posts will be rated as 'false, mixture, false headline, opinion, satire', among other definitions. The initiative will be rolled out in India as many as 12 languages.

The social media giant had started a pilot fact-checking programme in Karnataka last year in partnership with fact-checking portal Boom, followed by one with Vishvas News. The company had earlier tested the same in countries such as Singapore and the Netherlands.

It will now start checking facts in partnership with AFP India, Fact Crescendo, Factly, Newsmobile Fact Checker, The Quint and India Today Fact Check.

In a blog, Facebook said that it will use "both technology and human review to remove fake accounts, promote news literacy and disrupt the financial incentives of spammers."

According to the report, the company will also act against pages that 'repeatedly share false news.' The company, however, will exempt posts from politicians. "If a claim is made directly by a politician on their page, in an ad or on their website, it is considered direct speech and ineligible for our third-party fact-checking programme," it said.

In a case when a politician shares a specific piece of content such as a link to an article, video or photo created by someone else that has been previously debunked on Facebook, then the content will be demoted and a warning will be displayed.