It might be time to delete Facebook, because it’s getting harder and harder to ignore everything that they’re doing.

The latest Facebook scandal brings a whole lot of previous Facebook scandals together in an interesting and worrying way.

Let’s recap…

In September, we spared a thought for the hard-working moderators on Facebook suffering from PTSD because of the horrible stuff they have to filter out of our news feeds.

In October, we told you that Facebook would be introducing some hardcore fact-checking in South Africa in the form of Africa Check, a third-party fact-checking organisation based at the journalism department of the University of the Witwatersrand.

This followed shortly after Facebook failed to control hate speech on their site in Myanmar, which proved to be deadly.

Hot off that scandal, they accidentally approved a white supremacist ad created by news site The Intercept.

The only positive in the above recap is the third-party fact-checking system. Now it looks like even that is compromised, and the reasons could shed some light on why the social media company just can’t seem to get it right.

Journalists working as fact-checkers for Facebook are pushing to end a controversial media partnership with the social network, claiming that the company has ignored their concerns and failed to use their expertise to combat fake news, reports The Guardian.

Current and former Facebook factcheckers told the Guardian that the tech platform’s collaboration with outside reporters has produced minimal results and that they’ve lost trust in Facebook, which has repeatedly refused to release meaningful data about the impacts of their work. Some said Facebook’s hiring of a PR firm that used an antisemitic narrative to discredit critics – fueling the same kind of propaganda factcheckers regularly debunk – should be a deal-breaker.

Facebook hired a PR firm that attempted to discredit the company’s critics by claiming they were agents of the billionaire George Soros –  a Jewish philanthropist who is the frequent subject of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

“They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR,” said Brooke Binkowski, former managing editor of Snopes, a factchecking site that has partnered with Facebook for two years. “They’re not taking anything seriously. They are more interested in making themselves look good and passing the buck … They clearly don’t care.”

In other words, journalists are claiming that Facebook is enacting ‘window-dressing’, using them to make it look like they actually care about what does and doesn’t get distributed on the site, when in reality they couldn’t care less.

According to Mashable, Facebook has responded by pushing back on claims that its work with third-party fact-checkers amounts to little more than “crisis PR.”

Facebook has repeatedly said it’s gaining ground in the fight against fake news, a claim it reiterated Thursday.

“Fact-checking is highly effective in fighting misinformation,” Carden, wrote.

Fact-checkers have also taken issue with the lack of data about their work as Facebook doesn’t give them enough information for them to judge whether or not their work is actually effective. Now, Facebook plans to change that, Carden said.

“We’re starting to send fact-checkers quarterly reports that include customized statistics that reflect the work and impact of each fact-checker.”

Looks like another case of Facebook suddenly making changes to their practices when faced with a media scandal. The company appears to see what it can get away with, and for how long, before doing what it should have done in the first place.

Not a good look.

Dislike.

[sources:guardian&mashable]