The widespread distribution of fake news on Facebook can be attributed to misinformed social media users who are eager to share news that will help support their cause.
Facebook has been under fire in recent weeks for allowing these fake news stories to be shared on its platform.
In response to the flak, the social media company released a statement that it will be rolling out new features to help stop the propagation of fake news, by making it easier for users to report a news article as fake, and by engaging the help of third-party fact-checkers.
Some of the organizations that have been enlisted to help are ABC News, Snopes, and PolitiFact, which all belong to the International Fact-Checking Network led by Poynter.
The effort to weed out fake news has been met with a positive reaction by most people. Any news story could be reviewed for accuracy and will be disputed if it is unsubstantiated. Once a user attempts to share a fake story, Facebook will send out a prompt that the story is being disputed. Disputed stories will also be affected by Facebook's new algorithm and will be placed lower in the News Feed.
How Republicans, Conservatives Are Reacting
Not everyone is happy, though. Conservatives are concerned that the news organizations that have been tapped by Poynter are leaning to the left. In an article published in the Daily Wire, editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro said that partnering with these news organizations is "a disaster for news coverage. It's an attempt to restore gatekeepers who have a bias as the ultimate arbiters of truth."
"If these organizations begin questioning articles and penalizing outlets for simple political disagreements rather than outright factual falsities, conservatives will have to go elsewhere for their news," Shapiro added.
The Daily Caller also criticized this decision and called one of the fact-checkers, Snopes, an "unreliable liberal fact-checker." It also accused liberal journalists of branding legitimate conservative news agencies as producers of fake news.
Paul Joseph Watson, a popular conservative political commentator, called the movement "a group of incredibly biased left-wing fake news outlets that will bury dissenting opinions."
Facebook's move regarding the proliferation of fake news on the site came up after observers noted that this phenomenon may have swayed a number of people into voting for President-elect Donald Trump.
Accusations of fake news have been used by both sides of the political spectrum, with some people arguing that a particular news is fake just because it does not agree with what they believe in.
