Facebook launches UK ad campaign against fake news

Facebook has stepped up its efforts to combat fake news on its platform through an ad campaign in UK newspapers.

Since the fake news epidemic emerged during the 2016 US elections, top social media giants Google and Facebook have been promising to take action to curb the phenomenon.

Earlier this month, Google announced structural changes to identify unreliable news content in its search engine, and also added options to allow users to report them to the company. (See: Google ropes in user feedback to help battle fake news).

Facebook too, took similar steps against misinformation, and now it has gone a step further in the UK, which heads for a general election on 8 June, the first after exiting from the European Union.

According to a BBC investigation, uncontrolled circulation of fake news not only impacted the US 2016 presidential elections, but also the Brexit referendum.

Facebook has bought spaces on most of the UK's prominent dailies for ads to enlighten users on how to spot fake news on its social media sites and also how to report to Facebook upon finding the false information.

It has also published a tutorial on its Help Center on how to differentiate between genuine and fake news.