Facebook’s fake news squad comes to Canada

The fight for fact-based political debate is a good fight, no doubt. But, like the internet itself, it’s also virtually endless.

This week, for instance, an unflattering tweet from a “parody” account mocking Environment Minister Catherine McKenna (and managing to spell her name wrong) bounced around Twitter as if it were actually from her. That came to light shortly after the Conservatives were scolded by observers for a tweet about Liberal tax policy.

Meanwhile, Snopes, the American fact-checking website, was compelled to shoot down a meme that claimed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had disparaged American farmers. Two weeks ago, Snopes also felt it necessary to fact-check a claim about Trudeau’s left eyebrow.

Some of these falsehoods are frivolous. Others might not be.

This is politics in the era of social media, and perhaps a hint of what might come over the next year and a half. To some extent, in fact, Canada is coming late to the problem.

Facebook — which surely has both a moral responsibility and a business imperative to ensure it’s not a breeding ground for misinformation — has been confronting the outsized role lies now play in American politics since 2016.

Starting in July, Canada will be one of the countries where fact-checkers hired by Facebook will review some of the links and news stories being shared on the platform.

This initiative, launched in the wake of the 2016 presidential election in the United States amid widespread concern about the spread of “fake news” and misinformation on Facebook, has been rolled out already in 14 other countries, including the U.S., France and Germany.

In Canada, Facebook is partnering with Agence France-Presse, the international news agency. AFP fact-checkers will review stories that are being shared on Facebook and rate the reports for accuracy. If a story is found to be “false,” Facebook will limit its distribution and notify all those who have already shared the story.

Published fact-checks will also be attached as “related articles.” And further steps will be taken against pages that are found to repeatedly share false stories (publishers can also challenge or appeal rulings against their stories).

The utility and significance of the initiative has been debated in the United States over the past year, but Facebook argues it can only do so much.