Facebook’s fact-checking program reached Hungary — is this the end of the fake news era?

Facebook has been working on its new fact-checking programme for quite some time now, and it has finally reached Hungary. In the upcoming weeks, the work will begin and will help to filter, slow down, or even remove content that is aimed to mis- or disinform people and will help to mitigate the spreading of false information on viral topics significantly.

According to Telex, in recent year, Facebook has been attacked and accused of many things, including the misuse of the data of its users, freedom of speech and even competition rights. The most pressing matter is, however, the fact that fake news has to be put down somehow. This new programme that finally Hungary is a part of now will help to identify dangerous content and remove it from the social media website. The programme got off with a flying start after the 2016 US elections but only reached Hungary now five years later.

Alice Budisatrijo, the person behind the program, said in their press conference that the new programme’s main target is the disinformation content, which is harder to filter than regular fake news.

However, Facebook cannot simply delete such posts; as a private company, Facebook does not want to be the man of justice on the internet. Instead, the programme, with the help of an algorithm and human inspectors, will slow down such posts. Still, the site will also slow down every content of those users who repeatedly share disinformation.

The Hungarian government is planning on imposing sanctions on Facebook. If you would like to know more about it, you can read THIS article.

Facebook has three tiers to attack post containing disinformation or misinformation. The three different ways are the following:

• The most harmful ones that incite aggression, violence or abuse, – such as child pornography – deepfake videos or false information about the coronavirus will be immediately deleted.
• If it is not worth immediate deletion, their speed at which they can spread will be slowed down so that it cannot go viral. Those who repeatedly share such contents will have all of their posts slowed down.
• Facebook will provide any possible tool for users so that they identify and report any suspicious posts. One aspect of this will be that Facebook will notify users that their team of fact-checkers found the content questionable.

The fact-checking programme of Facebook has been running in more than 30 countries with 60 languages, and a total of 80 partners have been involved in helping filter through the innumerous number of posts on Facebook.

These partners are usually independent news-agencies/fact-checking organisations. Facebook’s leading partner in Europe is the AFP news agency. Naturally, no human being can monitor all the content on such a gigantic social media platform, so fact-checkers mainly focus on the most viral contents. Also, AI algorithms aid their work to help identify problematic posts.

What is surprising, however, is that in Hungary, only a single person will work in the programme.

Telex contacted AFP and received this unexpected answer from Bronwen Roberts, who has been coordinating the European fact-checking cooperation. He emphasised that the single person will work in close connection with AFP’s international network of fact-checkers. He also added that such a network is essential, as many viral posts affect multiple countries.

Facebook also added that they would not be checking the posts of politicians.

The company said that this is because it is in people’s public interest to be able to see what politicians state regardless of what they say is true or not. However, if their statement contains false information, those who share such posts will be susceptible to the above mentioned fact-checking procedures. Furthermore, if politicians would incite violence or would suggest anything else that goes against Facebook’s policy, the post would be immediately removed or labelled.

Read alsoHungary-based company develops COVID passport for smartphones

Featured image: Facebook

Source: Telex.hu