Burden rests with Facebook to tackle problem of fake news

One of Fairfax Media’s most senior editors says Facebook created the problem of fake news.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Picture: AFP

A senior Fairfax Media editor says Facebook created the problem of fake news, as the social network attracts criticism for funding a study into trust in the traditional news media.

Tory Maguire, national editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, says confidence in journalism is rebounding as Facebook comes under scrutiny in the US and abroad for its handling of users’ personal data and problems including the spread of misinformation through its platform and interference in elections.

“I don’t think fake news is a problem for the mainstream media,” said Maguire, who was speaking at the launch of the Centre for Media Transition’s new study, Trust & News Media in Australia: A Qualitative Study. The study was funded by Facebook.

“The only thing that we need to do is keep doing what we’ve been doing, which is stick to our journalistic values and be relentless on our accuracy, fairness and quality. It’s not our problem to sort out because we didn’t create fake news and propagate it.”

Unveiling the results of the CMT study at Facebook’s Sydney offices on Friday, Peter Fray, professor of journalism at University of Technology Sydney, revealed that apart from trust, the 34 participants in the survey wanted to feel positive, informed, respected and entertained.

“There was one key word that kept coming up and that word was transparency,” he said. “It was very clear to me that audiences expect to know what journalism is doing and why it is doing it.”

Results were gathered from four workshops in Sydney and Tamworth using 34 participants recruited via a Facebook post.

Sleeping Giants activist Denise Shrivell in a photo posted on her Facebook page.

Facebook’s news partnerships lead, Andrew Hunter, talked up a series of initiatives to help publishers gain greater exposure on the world’s biggest publishing platform.

“One of them is drawing attention to breaking news to make ­important timely news stand out,” he said. “We’ve also put ­together a pilot around developing stories. You can now follow a topic as developments happen through the day or week so users can stay up to date with a story that develops, like the leadership spill, for example. It wasn’t always the easiest thing to do in the past. That’s the way we’re thinking about emphasising trusted, credible, important news.

“It’s a huge focus for Facebook. An immense amount of resources, thinking and time are going into mitigating the bad content on Facebook: false news, disinformation, misinformation and fake accounts.”

Writing in Media today, News Corp executive Alan Oakley ­argues that Facebook’s funding of the CMT study is a way to avoid taking responsibility for fake news.

Oakley’s comments come after News Corp executive Campbell Reid said newspapers did not have a “trust problem”, but rather a “visibility and a ­viability problem” caused by Facebook and Google.

Reid’s comments are backed up by recent studies. A Edelman Trust Barometer found that the public was more willing to trust legacy sources of news and information.

Trust in traditional news media and journalism rebounded from 46 per cent last year to 61 per cent this year.

In May, the Digital News ­Report: Australia 2018 found that trust in news had risen to 50 per cent among Australians, up from 42 per cent a year earlier. Only 24 per cent of consumers said they trusted the news on social media.

Sleeping Giants activist Denise Shrivell did not appear on the panel as advertised but she sat in the audience. When asked why she had pulled out, Shrivell did not clarify the reason. Facebook referred Media’s inquiries to her.

Shrivell has been accused of deception by flooding Twitter with anonymous demands for ­advertising boycotts of media outlets that exaggerate Sleeping Giants’ real level of support for stopping “hate speech”.

NSW Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said last week that the anonymity of Sleeping Giants’ campaigns destroyed the group’s credibility.

It has emerged that Shrivell has been active in Labor politics, including the campaign of Kris­tina Keneally in November’s Bennelong by-election.

When asked in an interview with The Australian on September 12 whether she was politically active on behalf of any parties, Shrivell responded in previously unpublished comments: “No, I’m an activist … I’m independent. I can say things others can’t.”