Facebook says that it’s open to paying fact-checkers if that’s what it takes to fight fake news.
In an interview with Financial Times, Facebook’s News Feed leader, Adam Mosseri, said that the company would consider paying another organization for fact-checking if it made sense.
“A commercial relationship is something that’s on the table and that we are very open to,” Mosseri tells the FT. “It could depend on individual organizations, but we want to engage responsibly and if that means a financial arrangement, we are very open to it.”
Facebook already has partnerships with Snopes, Politifact, and other fact-checkers
Facebook already partners with a number of organizations, including Snopes and Politifact, to spot fake news. But it hasn’t been stated whether there’s a financial arrangement between the companies. Today’s quote suggests that, if there isn’t already, there could be in the future. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
From the sound of it, Facebook wouldn’t go about employing its own internal team of fact-checkers — doing so would likely put it in the same mess it ended up with when people complained about its News Feed editors rewriting headlines for the trending box. Instead, it seems like Mosseri is purely talking about partnering with outside organizations.
Facebook’s fact-checking partnership began back in December, and people have started seeing fake news get flagged over the last few months. Today, Facebook also began offering tips to spot fake articles at the top of the News Feed.