During the 2016 presidential campaign fake news became a hot topic. With social media playing a big part in everybody's lives, stories and news can be spread quickly. Facebook came under a lot of criticism during the campaign for not trying to combat fake news. Many believe this had an impact on the election. For example, a fake article claimed that Hilary Clinton sold weapons to ISIS. Readers can mistakenly judge the story as real and share them. Sites like Facebook can allow these stories to spread across the nation and the world.
Now Facebook is taking great efforts to prevent the distribution of fake news. They are using automated methods to screen out the fakes and then are taking efforts to shut down these accounts. Unfortunately, it is too late to effect the U.S. election, but Facebook is hoping that it will positively impact the French election. They are even taking out full-page ads with tips on how to spot fake news. We will shorty see the outcome of the race between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.
I think that it's great that Facebook is taking action in this. I also think people should really think about the things they see on social media and question whether or not it is really true.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fake-facebook-french-election_us_58f168f4e4b0da2ff860febe
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