Facebook removes accounts in fight against fake news

fake news
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Facebook says it has deleted tens of thousands of accounts in Britain ahead of the June 8 general election in a drive to battle fake news.

The tech giant also took out newspaper advertisements in Britain's media offering advice on how to spot such stories. The ads suggest that readers should be "skeptical of headlines," and to "look closely at the URL."

The company says it has made improvements to help them detect accounts more effectively.

Simon Milner, the tech firm's U.K. director of policy, says the platform wants to get to the "root of the problem" and is working with outside organizations to fact check and analyze content around the election.

Milner says Facebook is "doing everything we can to tackle the problem of ."

© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Citation: Facebook removes accounts in fight against fake news (2017, May 8) retrieved 19 April 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2017-05-facebook-accounts-fake-news.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

Facebook targets 30,000 fake France accounts before election

4 shares

Feedback to editors