Facebook tackles fake news with ‘trending’ topic algorithm

Facebook has announced it is tweaking the algorithm that ensures stories are fed to users on the social media platform in efforts to crack down on fake news stories on the social media site.

The platform has been lambasted over Donald Trump winning the US election in November 2016 for fake news. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel has voiced her concern over growing populism, stressing that fake news must be combated before German elections hold later this year.

Facebook has said it will be making three main changes to the algorithm.

“Today we’re announcing three updates to Trending, a feature that shows people popular topics being discussed on Facebook that they might not see in their News Feed,” Will Cathcart, Vice President of Facebook’s Product Management said.

Recently Facebook hired former CNN reporter, anchor and host, Campell Brown, aimed at repairing the online social media company’s troubled relationship with the traditional media.

According to Cathcart, “trending” topics will now feature publishers’ headline to add context, and that an “improved system” of identifying topics will be implemented to determine what issues are popular. Instead of relying only on what topics are popular on Facebook, this tweak will cross-reference the issues with established publishers. This will make it possible for all users in the same region to see the same topics, no longer personalized for individual interest.

These tweaks, Facebook hopes, will cut down on the appearance of phony news stories.

“We’re listening to people’s feedback and will continue to make improvements in order to provide a valuable Trending experience,” Cathcart added.

The social media site said the changes were initiated Wednesday and will be available to users in the coming weeks.