Facebook Has Deleted Over 30,000 Accounts in Fight Against Fake News

Staff Writer May 9, 2017

Less than a minute

A 3D plastic representation of the Facebook logo is seen in this illustration in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 13, 2015. Facebook announced deals with nine publishers -- including NBC News, the New York Times and BuzzFeed -- to deliver select articles "instantly" on mobile apps. A next logical step for the social giant would be to extend the program to Internet-video providers. Under the Instant Articles program, Facebook caches content on its servers so that it loads up to 10 times faster than regular article posts, which take an average of eight seconds to access. The other launch partners in the program are National Geographic, The Atlantic, the U.K.'s Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic - RTX1CSWP

Facebook has deleted “tens of thousands” of accounts and made changes to its newsfeed algorithm in an attempt to battle fake news, responding to criticism over the distribution of false information on its massive network.

“We have developed new ways to identify and remove fake accounts that might be spreading false news so that we get to the root of the problem,” said Simon Milner, Facebook’s director of policy for the UK.

The social media giant has come under intense pressure to tackle the spread of false stories, which came to prominence during the US presidential election last year when many inaccurate posts were widely shared on it and other social media services.

Aljazeera reports that Facebook suspended 30,000 accounts in France before the first round of its presidential election last month and uses outside fact-checkers in the country.

Facebook urged its users in the UK to be sceptical of headlines that look unbelievable and to check other sources before sharing news that may not be credible.

“With these changes, we expect we will also reduce the spread of material generated through inauthentic activity, including spam, misinformation, or other deceptive content that is often shared by creators of fake accounts,” Facebook said.

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Credit: Aljazeera, Reuters