Facebook will hire people to detect fake news

Facebook has posted a number of job openings for new employees to help detect fake news. These so-called News Publisher Specialists have to do research on Facebook and, among other things, compile lists of reliable news sites.

The Guardian noted that Facebook has posted the job openings online. Initially, Facebook stated that it was News Credibility Specialists, but after The Guardian, among others, started publishing about it, the name was changed to News Publisher Specialists. In addition to a vacancy for an English-speaking person, we are asking for someone who is fluent in Spanish.

Facebook wants the new employees to research the reliability of news on the social networking site. One of the responsibilities is to compile lists of reliable news sites. All this fits within the new News Credibility Program, about which Facebook has not released much further.

The vacancies fit in with Facebook’s plans to tackle fake news on the site. Facebook was criticized in particular after the US presidential election in 2016 for finding a lot of fake news on the site, which was used to influence public opinion. At the time, Facebook also employed moderators, but they have been fired to be replaced by algorithms to spot fake news. So now Facebook seems to resort to human intervention again.