The plan: Facebook has announced it will hire part-time contractors to fast-track posts for fact-checking, as part of a pilot program in the US over the coming months. The idea is that this will let Facebook’s existing fact-checkers find and debunk false claims more quickly.
How it’s meant to work: Facebook’s machine-learning system spots potential misinformation using various signals. For example, comments on the post might express disbelief, or the page sharing it might have a history of sharing incorrect information. These posts will be flagged for this new group of contractors (Facebook calls them “community reviewers”), who will do some research to find other sources to either support or debunk the claim. For example, if a post says a celebrity has died, they can check whether any reliable news sources have reported the story. Their conclusions will then be shared with Facebook’s fact-checkers, in an effort to signal which stories need to be reviewed and rated most urgently.
The problems: It makes sense to try to expedite the fact-checking process, but Facebook will be relying on outsourced, low-paid, part-time amateurs rather than hiring expert reviewers. Somewhat bafflingly, it’s promised to pick a pool of people who are representative of Facebook users in the US, rather than US residents in general, as if objective truth is a question of demographic balance.
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