Facebook Launches Campaign To Counter Fake News, Including Those Targeting Algeria

 The Administration of the social networking site “Facebook” announced the launch of a service to combat false and misleading news in North Africa and the Middle East, including Algeria.

An advertisement for Al-Chabaka said that Facebook invited all followers to participate in this new campaign under the slogan # Make sure before you share!

It explained that this service, which we provide in partnership with the Vetebinoa platform, to combat false news to check facts, invites you to verify what you read and share in order to avert contributing to the spread of misleading news, especially those related to Covid-19.

The network referred its subscribers to its partner in the campaign platform “Vetebinoa to combat false news”, which includes all the details and techniques in which it was stated that “False news usually plays on the emotional chord, and its topics hover around the matters that occupy people’s attention, they do not allow to influence your judgment on the extent of the health of the news, no matter how important it is to you.

Facebook experience with fake news

A year ago, Facebook announced the launch of a “fact-checking program in cooperation with a third party” in Arabic in cooperation with Agence France-Presse Middle East and North Africa to help fund fact-checking work that the agency will conduct on Facebook and help the platform to combat fake news and with the aim of reducing the level of spreading misinformation and enhancing the quality of news that reaches the audience through the Facebook platform.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a member of the global network that forms fact-checking organizations, and is accredited by the International Fact-Checkers Network.

AFP’s Arabic-speaking fact-checkers are taking advantage of the additional expertise of local press offices in the Middle East and North Africa to vet Arabic content on Facebook and will follow a series of criteria to determine the validity of news stories.

It also previously announced the launch of a new news tab, which will be available as a trial for a number of users of the social network in the United States, and it comes in an effort by the company to improve its image after being subjected to a lot of criticism about the inability to control false news.

“The press plays a delicate role in our democracy,” the US social media giant said in a blog post. News that is dealt with in depth, and comes from a well-known source, provides people with information that they can rely on. When this is not the case, we lose fundamental performance in making our right decisions.”

Facebook added that it will start launching the Facebook News tab dedicated to news on Facebook for a group of users in the United States of America.