Instagram is once more stepping up its efforts to fight misinformation, and that now includes automatically flagging some bogus posts. It’s expanding its fact-checking program worldwide, and as part of that move will label any known false Facebook material if it’s shared to Instagram.
Next year is the 2020 US presidential elections and, like the 2016 one, social media will play a crucial role, especially when it comes to the spread of misinformation. In a bid to better fight the sharing of false content, Instagram has announced that it will label such content as false if shared from Facebook which owns Instagram.
This forms part of several steps that Facebook is wanting to take in coming months, with the firm also noting that it will expand its fact checking programme worldwide. We’ve already seen the company partner with local organisations to tackle misinformation on the African content, so we should be seeing more of these kinds of initiatives in future.
As for the Instagram portion of the initiative posts that appear to be misleading will be automatically flagged, with a similar process being used vice versa. Facebook explains that there will be a “false information” overlay over dubious posts, with a link detailing why it has been flagged.
Should an Instagram user be a repeat offender when it comes to posting misinformation, their account will be pulled from the Explore page of the platform.
The social media giant reiterated that it will pull users from the Explore and hashtag pages if they repeatedly receive these flags.
This auto-labeling could help curb some of the more obnoxious attempts to spread misinformation. You’ll hopefully see fewer instances of friends sharing old hoaxes or junk science. This won’t necessarily stop the most determined charlatans, and it certainly won’t help you avoid false political ads. It’s a step in the right direction, though, and the newly global reach of the fact-checking program is bound to help as well.
