Facebook debuted a "disputed" tag Friday, using non-partisan third parties to assess the factual accuracy of stories that are reported as false by the social media outlet's users in an effort to address "fake news."
The Facebook tool will cite stories and not entire websites as violators as they are flagged individually by users. Links to participating organizations like Snopes and Politifact will be included to news stories judged as fake news, Gizmodo reported.
"You may see that certain news stories are marked as disputed on Facebook," said a statement on Facebook desktop help page. "News stories that are reported as fake by people on Facebook may be reviewed by independent third-party fact-checkers. These fact-checkers will be signatories of the non-partisan Poynter Institute for Media Studies' Code of Principles. A story may be marked as disputed if these fact-checkers find the story to be fake."
Forbes reported that the fake news situation reached new heights during last year's presidential election as untrue stories spread on social media sites about President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Google banned fake news outlets from the AdSense display ad network and tweaked the Google News algorithm to filter out fake news, according to Forbes.
"To Facebook's credit, the system seems to be as rigorous and transparent as anyone could hope for," wrote Gizmodo's Hudson Hongo. "Stories, not entire sites, are flagged individually and continue to appear on the social network, albeit with links to debunkers from participating organizations like Snopes and Politifact."
Fact-checkers signing Poynter's "Code of Principles" has not made everyone happy. Poynter, the journalism training school owned by the Tampa Bay Times, has been attacked by conservative news outlets like Breitbart for connections to liberal donor George Soros, Gizmodo noted.
"A cursory search of the Poynter Institute website finds that Poynter's IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network) is openly funded by Soros' Open Society Foundations as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, and the National Endowment for Democracy," according to a December Breitbart story on Poynter funding.
"Poynter's IFCN is also funded by the Omidyar Network, which is the nonprofit for liberal billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. The Omidyar Network has partnered with the Open Society on numerous projects and it has given grants to third parties using the Soros-funded Tides Foundation. Tides is one of the largest donors to left-wing causes in the U.S.," Breitbart continued.