Fake news has become a major headache for Facebook. Despite initially downplaying the impact that his platform had on the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg eventually changed his tune and said the platform would prioritize “high quality” news.

Zuckerberg has seemed sensitive to claims of left-wing bias over the past year, partnering with a right-wing outlet to fact-check stories, pandering to conservative conspiracy theories, and hiring two major conservative groups to determine whether the platform displays a liberal bias.

On Wednesday, Facebook announced the lineup of its series of news shows produced exclusively for the platform. Nearly half of the scheduled content consists of Fox News programming:

Facebook Watch, part of the social media giant's effort to crack down on "fake news" and bring users "high quality content," is about 50% shows from Fox News pic.twitter.com/k2n6Hj9Xnw — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) July 11, 2018


Later that day, Facebook hosted a “Fighting Fake News on Facebook” question and answer session with reporters in New York City. CNN’s Oliver Darcy asked John Hegeman, Facebook’s Head of News Feed, to explain why Infowars is still allowed on the platform despite being notorious for spreading baseless conspiracy theories:

.@oliverdarcy going IN: If FB is devoted to fighting false news, how does Infowars have an account on your site? HEGEMAN: It’s true that we take down things that are calling for violence/hate speech but I guess just for being false, that doesn't violate our Community Standards. — Davey Alba (@daveyalba) July 12, 2018

Darcy noted the obvious hypocrisy in Hegeman’s response and asked how Facebook can say it’s committed to fighting fake news if someone like Alex Jones doesn’t violate community standards “just for being false.” Hegeman didn’t really have an explanation:

.@oliverdarcy: I cant understand how FB can say we’re committed to fighting fake news but that @RealAlexJones @infowars can profit off your platform. SU: …It bugs me too. We need to define that in a clear, fair way & figure out how our policies apply. We have a long way to go. — Davey Alba (@daveyalba) July 12, 2018

Alex Jones’ Infowars has a verified Facebook account despite claiming the Newtown school shooting was a hoax, the Parkland school shooting survivors were crisis actors, Democrats were planning a Civil War, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were an “inside job,” the ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy theory was real, chemicals in the water turned “the freaking frogs gay,” Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are demons, the CIA is making you itchy and NASA controls the U.S.

Update: Facebook tried to do some damage control via Twitter on Thursday. In response to questions about why Infowars is still allowed on its platform, Facebook cited free speech:

We see Pages on both the left and the right pumping out what they consider opinion or analysis – but others call fake news. We believe banning these Pages would be contrary to the basic principles of free speech. — Facebook (@facebook) July 12, 2018

Instead, we demote individual posts etc. that are reported by FB users and rated as false by fact checkers. This means they lose around 80% of any future views. We also demote Pages and domains that repeatedly share false news. — Facebook (@facebook) July 12, 2018

Darcy was quick to note Facebook’s inconsistent position:

It seems Facebook wants it both ways. No outright ban, because free speech. On the other hand, Facebook wants to claim it effectively demotes pages into oblivion, which sounds to me sort of like a ban without calling it a ban. So what happened to the whole free speech thing? — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 12, 2018

In response to NBC News’ Ben Collins, Facebook went further on its thinking:

Sorry you feel that way. The question we face is whether to ban a Page for peddling information debunked by fact-checkers or to demote it so fewer people see it. We’ve chosen the second. Understand that you disagree, and thanks for the feedback. — Facebook (@facebook) July 12, 2018

Later, Facebook cited Infowars’ continued presence on YouTube and Twitter in replies to Crooked Media’s Tommy Vietor and the New York Times’ Kevin Roose:

The harder question is do you ban Pages (or people) that spread conspiracy theories or misinfo? We believe the better approach is to demote fake news posts, and the Pages that spread them. These guys are allowed YouTube and Twitter accounts too – we imagine for the same reason. — Facebook (@facebook) July 12, 2018

We understand you strongly disagree with our position. We just don’t think banning Pages for sharing conspiracy theories or false news is the right way to go. They seem to have YouTube and Twitter accounts too – we imagine for the same reason. — Facebook (@facebook) July 12, 2018

Despite having 13.5 million Twitter followers, Facebook’s initial response to Darcy quickly achieved ratio status.