Facebook to print newspaper ads to stop fake news

The tech firm will run adverts in British newspapers from Monday advising Facebook users to be “sceptical of headlines” and check other reports on the same subject before believing a story.

The move comes after criticism of the social network for failing to deal with fake news content on its website, with MPs among those saying it needed to do more.

Last month Facebook placed a notice on its users’ news feeds warning about fake news, after claims that fake stories supporting Donald Trump may have helped him win the US election.

Simon Milner, the tech firm’s director of policy in the UK, said: “People want to see accurate information on Facebook and so do we.

“That is why we are doing everything we can to tackle the problem of false news.

“We have developed new ways to identify and remove fake accounts that might be spreading false news so that we get to the root of the problem.”

:: Tom Cheshire – Facebook’s fake news threatens democracy

Mr Milner said Facebook was working with fact-checking organisations to analyse content around the General Election.

“To help people spot false news we are showing tips to everyone on Facebook on how to identify if something they see is false,” he said.

“We can’t solve this problem alone so we are supporting third party fact checkers during the election in their work with news organisations, so they can independently assess facts and stories.”

Last week, Facebook said it was looking to hire an extra 3,000 staff to combat extremist and distressing content, especially in videos – news.sky.com