At long last, after years of foot-dragging, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter are taking their first serious steps to combat the pandemic of fake news. They are far from sufficient, but we should applaud them anyway – and demand that they do much more.
This week, Twitter announced that it will add warning labels to some tweets with false or misleading information about the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it could eventually do the same with fake news on other topics. YouTube had announced earlier that it would take similar steps.
On May 7, Facebook took an even bolder step. The company, which also owns Instagram, effectively launched its independent content oversight board by announcing its first 20 members. The board will have a $130 million budget and will be able to make binding decisions to remove specific fake news items from Facebook and Instagram.
The members of this new board include many well-known human rights and freedom of the press advocates. The board will be chaired by Catalina Botero, the former special rapporteur of freedom of expression of the Organization of American States; Columbia University professor Jamal Greene; Stanford University professor Michael W. McConnell; and former Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
In an extended interview, I asked Botero why we should trust Facebook. The company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has admitted several times that Facebook was not doing enough to eliminate fake news, then went on with business as usual.