Facebook plan to combat fake news draws skepticism

Social media experts have expressed doubts over the effectiveness of Facebook's plan to combat fake news by surveying users on what news sources they find trustworthy.

In a post on his personal page on Friday evening, Facebook's CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg said he wanted to make sure news consumed on the platform was from "high quality and trusted sources".

"There's too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarization in the world today," wrote Zuckerberg.

"Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don't specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them."
Zuckerberg's plan to combat misinformation spread on the platform involves asking Facebook's users whether they find particular news sources trustworthy.
Facebook, which is not expected to release the results of the survey, hopes that the results will "shift the balance of news" seen by users towards sources that are determined to be trustworthy.
However, social media analysts had reservations over the effectiveness of the plan, questioning whether this was the best way to go about tackling the issue.