Agence France-Presse (AFP) has joined in Argentina to the data verification program of Facebook.
AFP is an international news agency with a deep insertion in Latin America. Its incorporation into the program will help combat misinformation through independent verifiers certified by the International Fact-Checking Network of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
The data verification program is a global initiative that brings together 43 organizations in 46 countries. Its objective is to reduce the circulation of false news on the platform to strengthen the quality of online consumption.
This action forms part of a Facebook effort to protect the platform from abuses, relevant work in an election year.
Fact checking, a wide distribute
project in LatAM
In Latin America, the verification project also includes Chequeado, in Argentina; Political Animal, in Mexico; La Silla Vacía and Colombiacheck, in Colombia; Lupa Agency and Aõs Fatos, in Brazil. AFP was already associated with Facebook’s data verification program in those three countries.
Facebook uses both community feedback and signals captured by artificial intelligence to detect potentially false or inaccurate publications that are sent to verifiers for examination. Posts marked as misleading by AFP and other verifiers will suffer a significant reduction of their distribution in the News Feed and may not be promoted.
“AFP is a prestigious international agency that already works with us in France, Spain and now, with the incorporation of Argentina, also in four countries in Latin America. We are excited to announce this new partnership to expand our efforts to limit misinformation and build a more informed community, “said Dulce Ramos, manager of Media Program Development for Facebook in Latin America.
Limiting fake news
External verifiers program limits the circulation of misleading information by cutting the number of people who see it while informing those who want to share it that the screening organizations questioned the content. Pages and domains that share misinformation will often also have their distribution restricted and will lose their ability to publish ads on Facebook, limiting the creation of false news for financial reasons.
“Verification of information is at the heart of AFP’s historic mission, and our experience in this area brings daily benefits to both our clients and the general public,” said Phil Chetwynd, Global Director of News for AFP.
Facebook also asks its users to decide for themselves what they read, who they trust and what they share. Each time the checking agencies write texts about particular content, it will be shown in Related Articles below the publication in the News Feed. It will also send notifications to people and the Page Administrators if they try to share, or have already done so in the past, a post identified as false.
Finally, Facebook encouraged the community to report when they see false news.