Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook Is 'Fighting Spam, Not Flagging Opinions'

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CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to Facebook to explain how his company’s new partnerships designed to combat fake news will filter out fact checkers who are politically motivated or working with an agenda.

“I understand how sensitive this is and I have instructed our team to proceed carefully and focus on fighting spam, not flagging opinions. For example, we’re focused on obvious hoaxes with headlines like ‘Michael Phelps just died of a heart attack’ designed to get people to click on the stories and see ads,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Our goal is to reduce these hoaxes just like we fight other scams on our platform, but I want us to be especially careful about never being arbiters of truth ourselves — which is why we’re working with third-party fact-checkers. We’ll keep looking for unbiased third parties to add to our list of reviewers.”

Zuckerberg said that he’s “going to keep a close eye on it” to make sure Facebook is “fighting actual spam and hoaxes, and not limiting people’s freedom of expression.”

Also Read: ABC News, Facebook Partner to Stop 'Toxic Effects' of Fake News

The Facebook CEO made the comments in response to a question on his page asking, “How will you know if these fact checkers are not politically motivated or affiliated themselves? Even ‘respected’ news outlets are biased and misrepresent news as it is. It’s a very grey complex area.”

Zuckerberg told the user that it was an “important question” before diving into his answer.

On Thursday, Facebook announced a deal with ABC News, FactCheck.org, Snopes and Politifact to combat the spread of fake news that has become a key issue across media in recent months.

Also Read: Help Wanted! Facebook Seeks Head of News Partnerships Amid Fake News Fracas

ABC News president James Goldston told TheWrap that he is “eager to help” prevent what is an “alarming amount of misinformation” circulating on the internet.

“I think we’ve all seen the toxic effects of fake news over the course of this election cycle and we regard ABC News as being a key part of that public service mission to help the American people understand what is real out there,” Goldston said. “I do believe that fake news is a true scourge of journalism. I think it’s extremely dangerous.”

Misinformation in 2016: A Timeline of Fake News (Photos)

Hopefully we'll look back at 2016 as that weird year when fake news stories oddly garnered influence over the voting population of the country. On the other side of the spectrum, there's also a chance we may look back one day in an effort to decode the origins of a propaganda tactic that's continued to be manipulated by powerful and/or misinformed ne'er do wells. Either way, there's no doubt we can learn from the false stories that started it all.
Getty/Lucasfilm
In February, Donald Trump entertained conspiracy theories that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered when reports surfaced that he was found with "a pillow on his face." Alex Jones' InfoWars had earlier reported on suggestions Scalia was killed. But the owner of the ranch where Scalia died later clarified that he did not have a pillow over his face.
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In June, Trump tweeted a photo that purported to show a family of African-Americans who supported him. But they told BuzzFeed they definitely did not.
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A fake NBC site alleged in August that Donald Trump was dead, inspiring the hashtag #RIPTrump. If the site's own traffic counter is to be believed, the story got more than three million views.
From fake NBC site
One fake news story that came out ahead of the election was published by "Winning Democrats," according to SF Gate. The false report claimed that Ireland was accepting refugees from the U.S. who were fleeing the possibility of a Trump presidency. The story reportedly got 810,000 engagements on Facebook before it was taken down.
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About a week before the Nov. 8 election claims that Pope Francis endorsed Trump circulated online. It was and remains unequivocally false. The fake story reportedly originated on the satirical website WTOE 5 News, with the headline "Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement."
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On Nov. 10, Trump tweeted that post-Election Day protestors were “professional,” but a professional fake-news writer, Paul Horner, admitted that he had invented a story about protesters being paid.
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Fake news writer Paul Horner 'fessed up to fabricating stories on his “satire” site abcnews.com.co (which even uses a logo designed to mimic the real ABC News logo) for a year. But he told The Washington Post a few weeks after the election, that he didn't realize how much damage fake news disguised as real news can do. "Honestly, people are definitely dumber. They just keep passing stuff around. Nobody fact-checks anything anymore -- I mean, that’s how Trump got elected," he said.
From abcnews.com.co
False stories circulated before the election that Hillary Clinton would definitely be indicted for her use of a private email server. A fake news site called WorldPoliticus claimed to have the big scoop. The Washington Post tracked down the fake story, which cited an unnamed FBI source. The story has since been taken down.
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In late November, Trump made an unsupported claim in a Twitter message: "I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." Trump may have been referencing multiple fake stories on conspiracy websites that claim he defeated Clinton in the popular vote count, CNN hypothesized.
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It earned the dubious nickname "PizzaGate": In early December a man with a rifle who claimed to be "self-investigating" a baseless online conspiracy theory entered a Washington, D.C., pizzeria and fired the weapon inside the restaurant.

Also Read: #PizzaGate: 4 Things You Need to Know About Fake-News Freakout Du Jour
AMC
Sandy Hook conspiracy theories have been brewing for a while, but they fueled an actual crime in early December when a Florida woman was charged with issuing death threats to a parent of one of the 20 children killed in the 2012 mass shooting. The woman issuing the threats was reportedly inspired by the hoax theory that the elementary school massacre that also left six staffers dead didn't actually happen.
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The hashtag #DumpStarWars started trending on Dec. 8, bolstered by the allegation that the film "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" included an anti-Trump message. Disney told TheWrap the claim was unequivocally false.

Also Read: No, ‘Rogue One’ Doesn’t Contain Anti-Trump Messages
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Fictitious stories out this year had real world effects

Hopefully we'll look back at 2016 as that weird year when fake news stories oddly garnered influence over the voting population of the country. On the other side of the spectrum, there's also a chance we may look back one day in an effort to decode the origins of a propaganda tactic that's continued to be manipulated by powerful and/or misinformed ne'er do wells. Either way, there's no doubt we can learn from the false stories that started it all.

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Misinformation in 2016: A Timeline of Fake News (Photos)

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