Facebook to broadcast original news shows to tackle fake news crisis

For a long time, Facebook’s (FB) credibility has been marred by allegations that it has become a spawning ground for fake news distributors. The social media giant had taken numerous measures to tackle this rising menace, but only to be tasted with failure every time. However, Facebook now plans to subjugate fake news with the real news – the company said it will fund media companies to create original news shows to be exclusively broadcasted through the platform.

Facebook will also take down the Trending section, where fake news used to book spots regularly. The move, which was announced by Facebook’s Global News Partnerships chief Campbell Brown through a blog post, can also be seen as a transition of the social media giant into a mobile news distribution platform.

The Mark Zuckerberg-led company has partnered with ABC News, Fox News, CNN, Univision, ATTN and Advance Local to create the shows, which will be featured on its Watch section.

“We are creating a dedicated section within Watch for news shows produced exclusively for Facebook by news publishers. The shows will be hosted by award-winning journalists, as well as new faces, and the formats will vary from a mix of daily briefings, weekly deep dives, and live breaking news coverage,” Brown said.

The initial line-up includes on-the-ground reporting programme On Location by ABC News, weekly series Chasing Corruption by Advance Local, daily global brief Anderson Cooper Full Circle by CNN and breaking news show Fox News Update. There is also Univision’s Real America with Jorge Ramos, in which the award-winning journalist would travel to the wide reaches of the country talking to immigrants about their situations.

Facebook said it would announce more shows in the upcoming weeks.