America might not be able to agree which news outlets are credible. But one thing we should all agree on is you can’t blindly trust the info you see in Facebook MEMES.
Any time you see a photo with writing on it, you have to google it to see if it’s really true. A lot of the information in memes is flawed, or totally made up. And especially the ones about politics.
So if this helps with all the bad information floating around, it would definitely be good.
Facebook announced yesterday that independent researchers are going to start FACT-CHECKING memes, including photos and videos people post.
Obviously they can’t catch every fake meme out there. But they’ll focus on the ones that are going viral by using metadata and reverse image searches. And you’ll be able to flag stuff if YOU think it’s fake.
It’s not clear if they’ll be removing memes just because third-party fact checkers determine they’re untrue. But probably not.
They’ve already been doing this with bogus articles. Some get demoted, so they’re less likely to pop up in your feed. But Facebook doesn’t remove them unless they’re promoting violence. (Facebook / MarketWatch) (Of course, some people still worry about Facebook picking sides and DON’T think any of this is a great idea.)
