In its most recent effort to fight against fake news, Facebook has announced that it will now prevent pages that publish fake news from running ads on its platform. These pages include public profiles for brands, celebrities, groups, businesses and other institutions.
This could mean a big blow for the business of fake news, as it would take away the economic incentive to spread misinformation to generate clicks, views and ad revenue.
“This update will help to reduce the distribution of false news which will keep Pages that spread false news from making money,” Facebook product managers Satwik Shukla and Tessa Lyons explained in a blog post. “If a Page repeatedly shares stories that have been marked as false by third-party fact-checkers, they will no longer be able to buy ads on Facebook. If Pages stop sharing false news, they may be eligible to start running ads again.”
The company also noted that pages that stop posting fake news would become eligible to buy ads on Facebook again.
This decision is a significantly different stance compared to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s original view of fake news, which reached its peak in the months leading up to the 2016 election. Zuckerberg originally dismissed the idea that fake news had influenced the 2016 elections — saying it was “pretty crazy” — which even caused his own employees to dispute him.
Following its employee backlash, Facebook began a series of efforts to limit fake news on its site, including the option for users to report fake news and partnerships with outside fact-checking organizations to help identify misinformation.