Facebook Instagram Misinformation

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Facebook finally says it will fight fake news on Instagram, too

Probably about time.

 

Andrew Wyrich

Tech

Posted on Dec 17, 2019   Updated on May 19, 2021, 8:15 pm CDT

Posts that have been flagged as misinformation or false by third-party fact-checkers on Facebook will also be labeled as such on Instagram, the company announced on Monday.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, announced the changes in a blog post on Monday.

When content is determined to be “false or partly false” by Facebook, it will be labeled on Instagram, the company said, adding that photo-based misinformation is “increasingly a challenge across our industry, and something our teams have been focused on addressing.”

“We use image matching technology to find further instances of this content and apply the label, helping reduce the spread of misinformation. In addition, if something is rated false or partly false on Facebook, starting today we’ll automatically label identical content if it is posted on Instagram (and vice versa),” the company wrote in a blog post.

The label will show a link to why the fact-checkers say it is false information and Facebook said it will make content from repeat offenders “harder to find by removing it from Explore and hashtag pages.”

Facebook has been engaged in a Sisyphean fight against false information ever since the problem was recognized as widespread during and after the 2016 election.

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*First Published: Dec 17, 2019, 9:03 am CST