14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook wants to make sure that it promotes quality news, and hired journalists that will curate what’s being posted in the upcoming Top News tab.
Like it or not, one of the problems facing today’s online world consists of fake news, Facebook is one of the instrumental social networks that contributed to the spreading of these fake news. While it’s not the only one, it’s nice to see that they are at least doing something.
As usual, it’s not enough to curate the stories. Facebook also needs to make sure that it reaches people, which will still be reading their flow, and users are free to share news via that channel as well. No to mention that Facebook doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to this type of endeavor.
For now, it’s just a nice gesture
Facebook is the largest social network in the world, and that means hundreds of millions of people are using it almost on a daily basis. According to a Digiday report, ten people daily until now, and they are mainly operating in the United States. Only one journalist is based on the UK.
It seems that Facebook is trying to limit the impact of fake news in the United States, at least for now. The implementation of a new Top News tab should go live in October, and some this might sound familiar.
For one, Facebook had a somewhat similar initiative a couple of years ago, with it’s Trending Stories, but pulled the plug after it was revealed that a few contractors were altering what’s trending by removing various stories, including ones about Facebook itself.
It’s unclear how this Top News tab will be different in this regard, now that Facebook is actually hiring journalists, and it’s not working through independent contractors. What will happen with the stories about negative stories about Facebook? Will they make it to the Top News?
Finally, there is also the possibility that Facebook could potentially sell a place in the Top News to publishers, which is not exactly against their business model.