Don’t Touch That Fake News

Michael Hedges February 4, 2019 Follow on Twitter

Most every enterprise of modest means reaches an inflection point, usually financial. Particularly vulnerable are those with big, well-known benefactors. Venture capital firms know this and regularly exact their price. Business strategies of the greater and lesser often do not coincide.

Well-regarded hoax-busting web portal Snopes suspended cooperation with social media behemoth Facebook. So did major news agency Associated Press (AP). The announcements (February 1) lifted eyebrows among certain note-takers, particularly within the media and tech spheres. Both have been part of Facebook’s very public struggle with misinformation, also known as fake news, since the US initiative launched in 2016, which was expanded through the next year.

A Snopes statement, posted on its website and undersigned by founder David Mikkelson and VP/Operations Vinny Green, said it was "evaluating the ramifications and costs of providing third-party fact-checking services," and wants the efforts to be "a net positive for our online community, publication, and staff." An AP spokesperson, quoted by the BBC (February 2), said it “constantly evaluates how to best deploy its fact-checking resources, and that includes ongoing conversations with Facebook about opportunities to do important fact-checking work on its platform." Both organizations confessed openness to renewing cooperation with Facebook in the future.

Snopes and the AP were two of the four remaining US fact-checking partners for Facebook; Politifact and Factcheck.org remain. US television broadcaster ABC News was briefly a fact-checking partner as was conservative news portal Weekly Standard, which ceased publication in 2018. More than 30 fact-checking organizations participate in the Facebook initiative, including Agence France-Presse (AFP), French TV news broadcaster BFMTV, French newspapers L’Express and Le Monde as well as Correctiv.org in Germany, Aos Fatos in Brazil and Vera Files in the Philippines.

"We are committed to fighting (misinformation) through many tactics,” said a Facebook spokesperson, quoted by the BBC, “and the work that third-party fact-checkers do is a valued and important piece of this effort. We plan to expand the program this year by adding new partners and languages."

For Snopes, the decision to discontinue the arrangement with Facebook was multifaceted. “It’s hard for me to concern myself with making Facebook successful when it’s so hard just for Snopes to be successful,” said Mr. Green, quoted by poynter.org (February 1). “Our community isn’t just on Facebook. We prioritize our readers first.” Snopes is undergoing reorganization, financial and operational, which precipitated putting activities for Facebook on hold.

Fact-checking and hoax-busting is a growing journalistic sub-strata. Highly regarded journalism advocate Poynter Institute formed the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) in 2015, largely to establish a code of principles. At the end on 2018, sixty-five organizations were signatories. They are located all over the world, some participate in fact-checking for Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social media platforms.

The IFCN Code of Principles, revised in 2018 with financial support from Google New Initiative, highlights transparency, financial and otherwise. Sources used for fact-checking must be publicly available for verification as well as information about the sites authors, editors, managers and directors. A corrections mechanism must be clear and readily available. Endorsements of political candidates or organizations is a big no-no.

Facebook’s relationship with fact-checking groups is not benevolent, handing out money for being nice people doing good works. It is fee-for-service. Snopes reportedly received US$100,000 for its year of paid service. PolitiFact earned about twice that in 2018. CheckNews, the fact-checker associated with French newspaper Libération, disclosed (January 30) per-piece payments from Facebook in 2018 of about US$1,000 (€870). For fact-checking groups of modest means, this is not, as we say, chump-change.

In an eye-popping exposé in the Guardian (December 13), current and former fact-checkers painted yet another creepy view (for journalists) of Facebook. “They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR,” said former Snopes managing director Brooke Binkowski. “They’re not taking anything seriously.”

Another fact-checker interviewed by the Guardian, and quoted anonymously, cited Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg hiring a public relations firm to “go after” philanthropist George Soros after he criticized the company’s practices. “Why should we trust Facebook when it’s pushing the same rumors that its own factcheckers are calling fake news? Working with Facebook makes us look bad.” Others suggested Facebook offers financial incentives to prioritize certain fact-checking targets over others.

Facebook has been with us now for fifteen years. By us, that means nearly three billion people. Actually, monthly active users have risen to 2.32 billion, said CNBC (January 30). All geographic areas except the US and Canada are increasing Facebook users, particularly the Asia-Pacific region. Fourth quarter revenues were yet another record. Facebook said it would “soon” stop reporting user counts. The company plans other changes, innovations and investments. Vilified by much of the media and technology spheres and nearly all public policy wonks Facebook is untouched to roar on the connecting the world and collecting US$7 from each person.

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