Overseas Fake News Publishers Use Facebook’s Instant Articles To Bring In More Cash by Jane Lytvynenko
Fake stories first:
From the post:
While some mainstream publishers are abandoning Facebook’s Instant Articles, fake news sites based overseas are taking advantage of the format — and in some cases Facebook itself is earning revenue from their false stories.
BuzzFeed News found 29 Facebook pages, and associated websites, that are using Instant Articles to help their completely false stories load faster on Facebook. At least 24 of these pages are also signed up with Facebook Audience Network, meaning Facebook itself earns a share of revenue from the fake news being read on its platform.
Launched in 2015, Instant Articles offer a way for publishers to have their articles load quickly and natively within the Facebook mobile app. Publishers can insert their own ads or use Facebook’s ad network, Audience Network, to automatically place advertisements into their articles. Facebook takes a cut of the revenue when sites monetize with Audience Network.
“We’re against false news and want no part of it on our platform; including in Instant Articles,” said an email statement from a Facebook spokesperson. “We’ve launched a comprehensive effort across all products to take on these scammers, and we’re currently hosting third-party fact checkers from around the world to understand how we can more effectively solve the problem.”
The spokesperson did not respond to questions about the use of Instant Articles by spammers and fake news publishers, or about the fact that Facebook’s ad network was also being used for monetization. The articles sent to Facebook by BuzzFeed News were later removed from the platform. The company also removes publishers from Instant Articles if they’ve been flagged by third-party fact-checkers.
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Really? You could be pwned by a “human cat” story?
Why I should be morally outraged and/or willing to devote attention to stopping that type of fake news?
Or ask anyone else to devote their resources to it?
Would you seek out Flat Earthers to dispel their delusions? If not, leave the “fake news” to people who seem to enjoy it. It’s their dime.