Facebook is the largest social network with over 2 billion users and managing its policies has always been an issue. Fake news is one of the biggest challenges that the platform has to face, and 2016 U.S. presidential elections are the biggest example of it.
The company has introduced various policies to regulate the fake news stories but still could not completely get out of it. This year, the top 100 fake news stories had over 158 million views, as per Avaaz – a non-profit group.
1. “Trump’s grandfather was a pimp and tax evader, whereas his father was the member of KKK” – a meme based on the background of Fredrick Trump, grandfather of President Trump circulated on social media claiming that he owned brothels and opium dens. It was also claimed that he earned wealth by being pimp and a drug dealer.
2. “Nancy Pelosi is using Social Security money for impeachment inquiry” – U.S. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi used Social Security funds of $2.4 billion to be used for impeachment inquiry of President Trump.
3. “AOC proposed that motorcycles should be banned” – the youngest Congresswoman, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez presented statics related to the accidents and injuries due to bikes and proposed that motorcycles should be banned all over the country.
4. “President Trump is trying to impeach Mike Pence” – the article stated that President Trump is trying that Vice President, Mike Pence should be impeached as well. Trump said along with his investigation, Vice President Pence’s calls to Ukraine should also be investigated.
5. “Ilhan Omar secretly held fundraisers with Islamic groups that have links with terrorism” – news of the website claimed Ilhan Omar attended two fund raisers that were not for public, neither there was any media coverage. Omar is blamed to be doing this in collaboration with extremist Islamic groups.
6. “Son of Nancy Pelosi was an executive at the gas company that worked Ukraine” – according to a website, the U.S. House Speaker’s son, Paul Pelosi Jr. was an executive at a gas company that had business in Ukraine.
7. “Democrats preferred increasing medical care for illegal and did not vote enough for vets, who have been waiting for it from a decade” – in September 2019, Democrats voted for a bill that supported an electric health record (EHR) system for the immigrants who are detained near the Mexico border in U.S. Military veterans already have this system.
8. “Tim Allen said the wall of Trump is less costly than the Obamacare website” – Son of President Trump shared a picture Instagram that quotes actor and comedian, Tim Allen saying that the Mexican border wall that Mr. Trump promised would cost less than the website built by the previous president, Barak Obama for health care policies.
9. “NYC coroner who declared Jeffrey Epstein death a suicide worked for Clinton Foundation till 2015, making half a million in one month” – a website claimed in one of its articles that Eric Braverman, who signed the death certificate of Jeffery Epstein was the member of Board of Trustees of Clinton Foundation, until 2015.
10. “Joe Biden said Trump Supporters are ‘Dregs of Society” - News on Facebook claim the former president, Joseph R. Biden criticized the supporters of Trump during the Human Rights Campaign dinner in Washington. He supposedly said the progressed made is being reversed by someone who has the support of “virulent people and some of them are dregs of society.”
According to Avaaz's report, "The solution to this (misinformation) problem is simple: Platforms must themselves work with fact-checkers to “Correct the Record” by distributing independent third party corrections to EVERY SINGLE PERSON who saw the false information in the first place. Newspapers publish corrections on their own pages, television stations on their own airwaves; (social media) platforms should do the same on their own channels. No one else can do it. This solution would tackle disinformation while preserving freedom of expression, as Correct the Record only adds factually corrected information, and does not require the platforms to delete any content."
Read next: 47 Percent Of Americans Don’t Believe Deepfakes Could Target Them
The company has introduced various policies to regulate the fake news stories but still could not completely get out of it. This year, the top 100 fake news stories had over 158 million views, as per Avaaz – a non-profit group.
"Those stories were shared over 2.3 million times on Facebook".There have many several political and non-political fake news spreading on the platform without any authentication. There news includes:
1. “Trump’s grandfather was a pimp and tax evader, whereas his father was the member of KKK” – a meme based on the background of Fredrick Trump, grandfather of President Trump circulated on social media claiming that he owned brothels and opium dens. It was also claimed that he earned wealth by being pimp and a drug dealer.
2. “Nancy Pelosi is using Social Security money for impeachment inquiry” – U.S. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi used Social Security funds of $2.4 billion to be used for impeachment inquiry of President Trump.
3. “AOC proposed that motorcycles should be banned” – the youngest Congresswoman, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez presented statics related to the accidents and injuries due to bikes and proposed that motorcycles should be banned all over the country.
4. “President Trump is trying to impeach Mike Pence” – the article stated that President Trump is trying that Vice President, Mike Pence should be impeached as well. Trump said along with his investigation, Vice President Pence’s calls to Ukraine should also be investigated.
5. “Ilhan Omar secretly held fundraisers with Islamic groups that have links with terrorism” – news of the website claimed Ilhan Omar attended two fund raisers that were not for public, neither there was any media coverage. Omar is blamed to be doing this in collaboration with extremist Islamic groups.
6. “Son of Nancy Pelosi was an executive at the gas company that worked Ukraine” – according to a website, the U.S. House Speaker’s son, Paul Pelosi Jr. was an executive at a gas company that had business in Ukraine.
7. “Democrats preferred increasing medical care for illegal and did not vote enough for vets, who have been waiting for it from a decade” – in September 2019, Democrats voted for a bill that supported an electric health record (EHR) system for the immigrants who are detained near the Mexico border in U.S. Military veterans already have this system.
8. “Tim Allen said the wall of Trump is less costly than the Obamacare website” – Son of President Trump shared a picture Instagram that quotes actor and comedian, Tim Allen saying that the Mexican border wall that Mr. Trump promised would cost less than the website built by the previous president, Barak Obama for health care policies.
9. “NYC coroner who declared Jeffrey Epstein death a suicide worked for Clinton Foundation till 2015, making half a million in one month” – a website claimed in one of its articles that Eric Braverman, who signed the death certificate of Jeffery Epstein was the member of Board of Trustees of Clinton Foundation, until 2015.
10. “Joe Biden said Trump Supporters are ‘Dregs of Society” - News on Facebook claim the former president, Joseph R. Biden criticized the supporters of Trump during the Human Rights Campaign dinner in Washington. He supposedly said the progressed made is being reversed by someone who has the support of “virulent people and some of them are dregs of society.”
According to Avaaz's report, "The solution to this (misinformation) problem is simple: Platforms must themselves work with fact-checkers to “Correct the Record” by distributing independent third party corrections to EVERY SINGLE PERSON who saw the false information in the first place. Newspapers publish corrections on their own pages, television stations on their own airwaves; (social media) platforms should do the same on their own channels. No one else can do it. This solution would tackle disinformation while preserving freedom of expression, as Correct the Record only adds factually corrected information, and does not require the platforms to delete any content."
Read next: 47 Percent Of Americans Don’t Believe Deepfakes Could Target Them
