Facebook-- Breaking through the Fake News

I briefly spoke on the advantage Snapchat has over Facebook in last week's post. Their advantage? Snapchat’s media content is written and released through many of the top credible media source organizations, meaning no regular joe can publish an article on their media page.

Now let’s address Facebook’s Disadvantage—All Consumer Generated Content labeled newsworthy.

Fourteen years ago, Mark Zuckerburg debuted Facebook Inc. into the digital media tech genre. What the world first viewed as a Myspace copycat, has now transformed into one of the fastest growing tech start-ups in the world, currently valued at $376 billion. Their mission is what seperated them from everyone else:

"Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. We do this by giving people the power to share whatever they want and be connected to whoever they want, no matter where they are." - Mark Elliot Zuckerberg

Over the past few months, Facebook Inc. has been critized for their tolerance of the publication of "fake" news. If you have opened Facebook in the last 24 hours, you have found yourself drowning in articles and commentaries regarding President Donald Trump and his recent executive orders. Now I am not here to talk politics, I am here to help you dicipher what articles are reliable newsource publications and what are consumer generated, well, bullshit.

Facebook's "Trending" feature has been altered multiple times over the past year. Located at the top right of your home page, you will find a box that is home to six main categories: Top Trending, Politics, Science and Technology, Sports, and Entertainment. Under each topic you will find up to 10 of the most "talked about" topics and articles within the chosen subject. See below for current version.

Now how does Facebook ensure that its users have access to reliable news without going against its core mission statement?

Facebook Inc. has turned to its "Trending" Feature for all credible media source publications. The altered feature will become the home of media published by credible sources.

All articles under these categories must be covered heavily be numerous credible publishers in order for them to be visible in the feature. The box will now contain all articles relevant to the country the user is in, and all users in that specific country will see the same topics.

This is determined by not only considering the popularity of topics by users, but also by the "historical engagement of the particular publisher" -- the duration of social presence the publisher has accumulated. The company has found most "fake" news is being published through newly founded news sites who use facebook to push traffic to their website. Their hopes are enabling this new version of the "Trending" feature will battle against a vast range of fake news publications on their platform.