In yet another step to combat Pages that promote fake news again and again, Facebook has announced that these repeat offenders will no longer be allowed to advertise on Facebook.
Currently, Facebook do not allow advertisers to run ads that link to stories that have been marked false by third-party fact-checking organisation. The new update will disrupt the economic incentives and curb the spread of false news, which is another step towards building a more informed community on Facebook.
“We’ve found instances of Pages using Facebook ads to build their audiences in order to distribute false news more broadly, “said Facebook.
Now, if a Page repeatedly shares stories that have been marked as false by third-party fact-checkers, they will no longer be able to buy ads on Facebook. If Pages stop sharing false news, they may be eligible to start running ads again.
Earlier this month, Facebook announced two new updates that will limit the spread of stories in News Feed that feature either fake video play buttons embedded in their imagery or videos of only a static image. With the new updates, Facebook said it will start demoting stories that feature fake video play buttons.
The social media giant has also updated its News Feed to show people more stories that will load quickly on mobile and fewer stories that might take longer to load, so they can spend more time reading the stories they find relevant.
Globally, Facebook now has over two billion monthly active users on its platform – up from 1.94 billion total that the company announced during its recent earnings report in May.
