Facebook announced today the measures it will take to combat fake news: advertising revenue.
As two Facebook product managers explain in today's update, Facebook will not allow advertising to and from pages that repeatedly share news that has been flagged as false by third parties.
Facebook hopes this measure will help stem the tide of fake stories by cutting off any potential cash flow to such pages:
Today's update of measures helps to stop financial incentives and reduce the spread of fake news, which is another step towards building a more informed community on Facebook.
When Facebook initially outlined its plan to curb fake news last year, it mentioned cutting revenue off spammers, but didn't specify how it would do that.
Adam Mosseri, VP of News Feed, said it was very easy to identify the true motivations of the people running such Pages:
We have found that a lot of fake news exists for financial reasons. Spammers make money by masquerading as well-known news organizations and publishing hoaxes that get people to visit their websites, which mainly serve ads.
Facebook product managers also said that Pages identified with false content may be eligible for advertising if they eventually stop sharing fake news, but they did not specify a timeframe.
