Facebook is investing $300m (£233m) in local journalism projects amid mounting criticism over fake news on its platform. The company said it would be investing in local reporters and newsrooms as well as helping media organisations to create sustainable business models.
News of the investment comes just days after Facebook unveiled a new fact-checking service in the UK to deal with disinformation on its site, as it struggles to cope with the onslaught of accounts posting such content. The announcement is among the first initiatives since Sir Nick Clegg, Britain’s former deputy prime minister, joined Facebook as head of global affairs and communications tasked with repairing the company’s reputation.
Facebook has been battling the rise of fake news online since it discovered that a Russian troll farm had been using its platform to spread misleading content in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election. During that election, some fake news stories were shared more than real stories.
However, even though Facebook is aware of the issues, and deletes many of those accounts it finds responsible, it has so far been unable to stamp out bad actors completely and in November revealed it had removed more than 1.5 billion fake accounts in the six month period starting June.
Print advertising and circulation revenue has been in decline for years across the UK and US, and many news organisations have been unable to replace this with digital sales, due to Facebook and Google’s dominance in online advertising.
