Two fact checking agencies terminate agreement with Facebook

Two leading fact-checking agencies have ended their partnerships with Facebook, striking a significant blow to the network’s efforts to fight fake news.

The social network had paid the Associated Press and Snopes to combat its misinformation crisis.

But both firms confirmed they stopped checking articles at the end of 2018, and will not renew their contracts.

Late last year, the Guardian published a report that suggested fact-checking firms were frustrated by Facebook’s lack of transparency.

The article quoted former Snopes managing editor Brooke Binkowski as saying: “They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR. 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 a blog post, Facebook disputed the Guardian’s report, saying it had “several inaccuracies”.

Meanwhile more than 500 news websites have made changes to their standards or disclosures after getting feedback from NewsGuard, a startup that created a credibility ratings system for news on the internet, the company told Reuters this week.

Via BBC /Reuters