Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, once again, denied reports claiming fake news spread on the News Feed led to the victory of Donald Trump in the US Presidential elections. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, once again, denied reports claiming fake news spread on the News Feed led to the victory of Donald Trump in the US Presidential elections.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, once again, denied reports claiming fake news spread on the News Feed led to the victory of Donald Trump in the US Presidential elections. “After the election, many people are asking whether fake news contributed to the result, and what our responsibility is to prevent fake news from spreading. These are very important questions and I care deeply about getting them right. I want to do my best to explain what we know here,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.

The Facebook CEO explained a very small amount (about 1 per cent) of what users see on their News Feed is fake news and overall, this makes it extremely unlikely that hoaxes changed the outcome of this election.

“That said, we don’t want any hoaxes on Facebook,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We have already launched work enabling our community to flag hoaxes and fake news, and there is more we can do here. We have made progress, and we will continue to work on this to improve further,” he added.

Facebook is facing criticism after some media said the company didn’t do enough to suppress fake articles against the Clinton campaign and allowed fake, pro-Trump stories to keep getting shared, re-shared on the website. Zuckerberg had earlier denied that Facebook could have predicted Trump will win or that it knew about how influential he was with his supporters. He had also said it was wrong to assume that people would vote or not vote for a candidate simply because of something they said on social media.

The Facebook CEO was also not convinced by the idea that they didn’t filter out enough fake stories, which affected the election outcome. “When it comes to News Feed ranking we are very transparent, and every time we make a change we tell people what we’re doing. The idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way I think is a pretty crazy idea,” he said.

Read: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg: Fake news on News Feed didn’t help Trump win

Zuckerberg said, “Most importantly, we gave tens of millions of people tools to share billions of posts and reactions about the US Presidential election.” Read his full post here:

I want to share some thoughts on Facebook and the election.

Our goal is to give every person a voice. We believe deeply in people. Assuming that people understand what is important in their lives and that they can express those views has driven not only our community, but democracy overall. Sometimes when people use their voice though, they say things that seem wrong and they support people you disagree with.

After the election, many people are asking whether fake news contributed to the result, and what our responsibility is to prevent fake news from spreading. These are very important questions and I care deeply about getting them right. I want to do my best to explain what we know here.

Read Opinion: Fake news and how it is killing democracy through social media timelines

Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99% of what people see is authentic. Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes. The hoaxes that do exist are not limited to one partisan view, or even to politics. Overall, this makes it extremely unlikely hoaxes changed the outcome of this election in one direction or the other.

That said, we don’t want any hoaxes on Facebook. Our goal is to show people the content they will find most meaningful, and people want accurate news. We have already launched work enabling our community to flag hoaxes and fake news, and there is more we can do here. We have made progress, and we will continue to work on this to improve further.

This is an area where I believe we must proceed very carefully though. Identifying the “truth” is complicated. While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted. An even greater volume of stories express an opinion that many will disagree with and flag as incorrect even when factual. I am confident we can find ways for our community to tell us what content is most meaningful, but I believe we must be extremely cautious about becoming arbiters of truth ourselves.

As we continue our research, we are committed to always updating you on how News Feed evolves. We hope to have more to share soon, although this work often takes longer than we’d like in order to confirm changes we make won’t introduce unintended side effects or bias into the system. If you’re interested in following our updates, I encourage you to follow our News Feed FYI here: http://bit.ly/2frNWo2.

Overall, I am proud of our role giving people a voice in this election. We helped more than 2 million people register to vote, and based on our estimates we got a similar number of people to vote who might have stayed home otherwise. We helped millions of people connect with candidates so they could hear from them directly and be better informed. Most importantly, we gave tens of millions of people tools to share billions of posts and reactions about this election. A lot of that dialog may not have happened without Facebook.

This has been a historic election and it has been very painful for many people. Still, I think it’s important to try to understand the perspective of people on the other side. In my experience, people are good, and even if you may not feel that way today, believing in people leads to better results over the long term.

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Technology News, download Indian Express App.

© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd