Google and Facebook each announced efforts Monday intended to diminish the influence of fake news websites by restricting their access to advertising services on either platform.
Amid a post-election backlash brought on by either company’s inability to stop the spread of bogus news article in the run up to Nov. 8, the two tech titans separately unveiled plans aimed at reducing the reach of certain websites.
Google said it will stop allowing its AdSense ads to appear “on pages that misrepresent, misstate or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher’s content or the primary purpose,” the company told the Wall Street Journal on Monday. A spokeswoman for Google said the policy change will specifically prohibit sites that distribute false news from using its proprietary ad-selling software, the Journal reported.
Facebook, meanwhile, has revised its own policies to make it explicitly clear that phony news sites are categorized as bogus across its Audience Network, meaning fake articles shouldn’t appear in ads distributed by Facebook across third-party websites and apps.
“We do not integrate or display ads in apps or sites containing content that is illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news,” Facebook said in a statement to Reuters.
Together, their efforts may potentially cripple the ability for websites that sling fake news stories from amplifying their content across the internet, the likes of which has been hotly debated in the week since Donald Trump was elected president.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has denied in recent days that his social network played a significant part in influencing the outcome of last week’s presidential election in the wake of complaints concerning the circulation of bogus, politically charged articles across the platform prior to Nov. 8.
“Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99 percent of what people see is authentic,” Mr. Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post on Saturday. “Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes.”
Upon the latest changes to Facebook’s ad policy, however, it appears the company will try to keep that remaining 1 percent from using the site to spread misinformation.
Around 62 percent of American adults get news on social media, according to the results of a Pew Research Center poll released earlier this year. A more recent study released earlier this month concluded that around 79 percent of adults who use social media are active on Facebook.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.