Facebook Planning to Exempt Opinion Pieces from Fact-checking Programme

Facebook is reportedly planning to exempt opinion pieces and satire write-ups from its third-party fact-checking programme which it uses to flag misinformation and fake news on its platform.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, "publishers that get their content labelled as false by fact checkers will also be able to appeal to Facebook".

Fact-checkers currently have nine rating options to review content and satire and opinion are part of those options.

The social media giant last week exempted politicians from its third-party fact-checking programme, saying its efforts to curb fake news and misinformation don't apply to politicians globally.

Nick Clegg who is vice president of Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook said the company does not believe it's appropriate to referee political debates and prevent a politician's speech from reaching its audience and being subject to public debate and scrutiny.

"We have had this policy on the books for over a year now, posted publicly on our site under our eligibility guidelines. This means that we will not send organic content or ads from politicians to our third-party fact-checking partners for review," Clegg said in a statement.

However, when a politician shares previously debunked content including links, videos and photos, Facebook plans to demote that content, display related information from fact-checkers, and reject its inclusion in advertisements.

"From now on, we will treat speech from politicians as newsworthy content that should, as a general rule, be seen and heard."

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"However, in keeping with the principle that we apply different standards to content for which we receive payment, this will not apply to ads — if someone chooses to post an ad on Facebook, they must still fall within our Community Standards and our advertising policies," Clegg elaborated.

Since the 2016 US presidential election, Facebook has been trying to tackle the spread of misinformation on its platform. (IANS)