Subscriber Only
Technology
He Got Rich by Sparking the Fake News Boom. Then Facebook Broke His Business
Partisan news publisher thinks he’s following Facebook’s rules, but it’s not working
By
The Battle Between Fake News and Social Media Algorithms
Cyrus Massoumi spent the last few years building exactly what he thought would thrive on Facebook: A series of inflammatory conservative websites, finely tuned to produce the most viral and outrageous version of the news. The social network rewarded him with an audience.
These days, Facebook Inc. wants something different. Reacting to concerns about how fake news spread on its social network, including by Russian propagandists, the company has altered its algorithm to punish sites like Massoumi’s. Facebook has put out a series of blog posts explaining how higher quality content will be rewarded.
