Facebook’s Fake News Crackdown: It’s Complicated
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Many posts fall into gray area: neither entirely true or false
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Fact checkers: Promote our work and cripple repeat offenders
Facebook to Tackle Fake News
Last week, a story claiming that Ford Motor Co. was moving truck production from Mexico to Ohio went viral on Facebook. “The Trump Effect: It’s Happening Already!!” the Facebook user Right Wing News wrote. That story was actually based on a CNN report from 2015, before Donald Trump was even the Republican nominee for president.
The post was neither entirely true nor completely false. It fell into a gray area in the nuanced world of fact-checking, highlighting the thorny challenge of cracking down on fake news. While some articles are obviously fake, like one about the Pope endorsing Trump, many others are misleading, exaggerated or distorted, but contain a kernel of truth. They require judgment calls, and it can be hard to tell where to draw the line, professional fact-checkers say.