KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 — From now, news publishers in Malaysia must be mindful of publishing misinformation on Facebook following the launch of a third-party, fact-checking programme by the social media platform in partnership with Agence France-Presse (AFP) today.

The programme aims to reduce the spread of false information and help build a more informed community in the country.

It also involves AFP reviewing and rating the accuracy of stories on Facebook, including photos and videos.

Facebook Malaysia strategic partner manager, Alice Budisatrijo, said fighting inauthentic content and taking care of the distribution of false news on Facebook was very much part of their effort to ensure news that people find on the social platform is of high-quality.

"When we talk about inauthentic content, obviously false news, misinformation is among them... but also content that is spread by bad actors — people who have bad intentions when they use Facebook.

"Obviously, we don’t want them (bad actors), because when people go on Facebook — especially to consume news on Facebook — we want them to find credible, high-quality, informative news that’s hopefully entertaining as well,” she said at the launch at Facebook Malaysia headquarters here.

AFP has been certified by the Poynter Institute’s non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network.

Through the programme, AFP will fact-check Facebook content in English and Malay according to a standard set of criteria to determine the veracity of stories.

According to Budisatrijo, when a third-party fact-checker rates a story as false, it will appear lower in the News Feed, significantly reducing its distribution.

In addition, whenever the third-party fact-checker writes an article about a piece of content that has been determined to be false, Facebook will automatically show the correct ‘Related Articles’ below the story in News Feed.

However, pages that repeatedly share false news will see their distribution reduced and their ability to monetise and advertise removed.

"In news partnerships, it is essential that we develop products that will help publishers. We have training programmes, share best practices and receive feedback from a lot of publishers to develop products that are useful, and do some training for the journalists and the public,” said Budisatrijo.

Facebook is now working with 54 partners around the world for a fact-checking programme covering content in 43 languages, in 57 countries.

The programme is in line with its three-part framework to improve the quality and authenticity of stories in the News Feed, wherein Facebook removes accounts and content that violate its Community Standards or ad policies.

It also reduces the distribution of false news and inauthentic content, while giving people more context on the post they see. — Bernama