Facebook to take strict actions against individual accounts that repeatedly spread misinformation

Ever since Facebook has started its fact-checking program in 2016, it has primarily focused on Pages, Groups, Instagram accounts and domains sharing misinformation.

Facebook is one of the platforms through which a lot of misinformation is spread by users. While some do it with a nefarious intention to influence people, some share it without paying much heed to the content. However, not anymore as Facebook has now said that it will take actions against accounts that repeatedly spread misinformation. This time not only the Facebook pages but actions will also be taken against the personal accounts that indulge in spreading false news driven by propaganda. Facebook will first inform users about the posts that have been rated false by a fact-checker. “Today, we’re launching new ways to inform people if they’re interacting with content that’s been rated by a fact-checker as well as taking stronger action against people who repeatedly share misinformation on Facebook. Whether it’s false or misleading content about COVID-19 and vaccines, climate change, elections or other topics, we’re making sure fewer people see misinformation on our apps,” Facebook said in a blog post. Ever since Facebook has started its fact-checking program in 2016, it has primarily focused on Pages, Groups, Instagram accounts and domains sharing misinformation. However, now Facebook will take stricter action against the information against the individual Facebook accounts too. “Starting today, we will reduce the distribution of all posts in News Feed from an individual’s Facebook account if they repeatedly share content that has been rated by one of our fact-checking partners. We already reduce a single post’s reach in News Feed if it has been debunked,” the blog said.