One of the issues that people have been complaining about when it comes to the world of social media is fake news. Fake news and rumors spread faster than authentic ones. This is considered dangerous because you end up not trusting anything you read.
A Netflix documentary called âThe Social Dilemmaâ even brought up this issue and explained the danger of the spread of fake news.
The recent circumstances created room for fake news to spread. Since the issue of the pandemic is a worldwide one, you canât stop the whole world from talking about it.
Therefore Facebook decided to take a stand against this false news and launched a campaign in a collaboration with Fatabyyano.
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#ThinkBeforeYouShare
Facebook has collaborated with Fatabyyano to launch an educational campaign in the MENA region to spot fake news. Fatabyyano is a third-party fact-checking partner in the Middle East and it will help Facebook in its campaign to educate people on how to spot false news.
The campaign is under the name of #ThinkBeofreYouShare and its main purpose is to detect possible fake news.
Educating People on Fake News
The main goal of this campaign is to educate people on how to detect false news. People will be able to tell what’s fake and what’s not especially when it comes to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
As we mentioned earlier, social media platforms are the place for false news. It’s worth mentioning that the spread of COVID-19 increased and spread them faster than the virus itself.
This campaign is definitely a good step towards limiting the false news spreading every day regarding many vital topics.
A Dedicated Website to the Campaign
Facebook and Fatabyyano have created a website dedicated to the campaign www.thinkbeforeyoushare.com that will ask the visitors some questions on the posts they come across.
There will be three informative sections that touch on critical topics around misinformation. These sections are, How to think like a fact-checker, The differences between a credible and a non-credible source of information, and The dangers of misinformation and the spreading of false news.
The website will also include a true or false quiz. This quiz will check the users’ answers to the news they come across on daily basis. It will also be on different topics that we read every day.
The quizâs goal is to convey accurate and true information regarding many topics.
Dr. Moath Al Thaher who is the CEO & Founder, Fatabyyano, said:
We are pleased to partner with Facebook in our efforts to extend our fact-checking initiatives throughout the Middle East. As a locally established entity, information verification of news sources across our region remains our utmost priority. In light of the spread of misinformation seen across Facebookâs platforms, we are dedicated to minimizing the distribution of false news in the Arabic language, and giving the power back to people to make informed decisions before hitting that âshareâ or âforwardâ button.
Also, Fares Akkad who is Director of Media Partnerships for Facebookâs Growth Markets (LATAM, APAC, MEA), News, stated:
Now, more than ever, we are working to connect people to accurate sources, and show less misinformation — especially about COVID-19. We have made significant investments to remove accounts and content that violate our Community Standards or Ad Policies; reduce the distribution of false news, and inform people by giving them more context on the posts they see — so people can decide what to read, trust, and share. With the help of our regional partner Fatabyyano and through this new campaign, we are underscoring our commitment as we look to expand our fight against misinformation.
You can visit the website to know more about the campaign. We canât wait to see how this campaign will affect social media users.