Good news for anyone who has a working brain – it’s going to be harder for your idiot friends and relatives to share fake news and mass panic on Facebook.

Following a similar launch in Kenya earlier this week, Facebook has launched fake news checking in South Africa, just in time for the 2019 elections.

This probably has something to do with the negative impact Facebook has had on political systems worldwide.

Here’s Business Insider:

Potential fake news stories will be put in front of Africa Check, a third-party fact-checking based at the journalism department of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg since 2012, and the AFP news service.

Africa Check on Thursday announced its involvement in a hard-hitting post that criticised Facebook for failing in its responsibility as a publisher for many years, and points out some of the problems with its fact-checking programme. Facebook will pay Africa Check for its services.

You can check out that post here. For now, here’s how it works…

Click the three small dots in the right-hand corner of the post:

The three dots at the top right of each post give you the option to “give feedback” on the post, or in some iterations to “report” it. That takes you to another screen, where you can identify it as fake news.

The possible fake news will then go to a third-party fact checker for review. Facebook uses a global network of fact-checkers. In South Africa, Africa Check or the France-headquartered AFP will be doing the checking, by reviewing the material and rating it.

The reviewing organisation has a range of options, Africa Check’s Anim Van Wyk said on Thursday, and can classify articles as “true”, or “false”, or “mixture”. They can also flag contents as “not eligible” for fact checking, if it is satire, or clear opinion.

In theory, only articles, pictures, or videos for which the primary claim is false will be flagged.

Once the fake news is flagged, users are warned about it. So, while the news won’t be removed, you can end that irritating Facebook fight a lot faster by pointing out that the article is marked as fake.

Where fake news does show up in feeds, it will come with additional information from fact checkers.

If you try to share such an article once it has been flagged, you will be warned it is fake. Those who have previously shared such fake news will also be notified that it has been found to be false.

Great – it also functions as an idiot deterrent that tells people when they’re being gullible. Even better, repeat offenders will be punished.

“If a Facebook Page or website repeatedly shares misinformation, we’ll reduce the overall distribution of the Page or website, not just individual false articles. We’ll also cut off their ability to make money or advertise on our services,” Facebook says.

Publishers can dispute a finding against them or publish a correction, in which case the “strike” will be removed.

Finally, a proactive way to deal with bogus health cures, pyramid schemes, Trump supporters, and great-aunt Susan, who’s convinced that they’ve tapped her microwave.

[source:businessinsider]