Experts Weigh In On How Facebook Could Stomp Out Fake Content Once And For All

Facebook receives a ton of criticism for not doing enough to remove fake news, spam accounts and other bad actors from its platform. However, according to a host of prominent experts, there are steps the company could take to solve these problems that it either can’t or won’t.

The problem, these experts say, is that most of the steps that could truly fix the problem are far too extreme for Facebook to consider. For instance, it could remove news from its platform altogether or pre-approve all content before it’s posted. It could create stricter measures to authenticate users’ identities, or just make the rules stronger for what constitutes offensive content. Unfortunately, according to social media consultant Matt Navarra, the company has already implemented most of the obvious solutions.

“The many other ways it could tackle the fake news problem mostly seem to be in play already, or have been tried,” he said. “There are limits on what they can do without better AI or even more moderators and fact checkers. Especially if they are seemingly resistant to taking down content for fear of being seen to censor publishers, fake or not.”

That is not an encouraging assessment of Facebook’s future, especially as the company promises to continue addressing some of these major issues. Only time will tell if Facebook can get its act together, but for now, some of the problems that plague it may be here to stay.