Facebook has announced the launch of its third-party fact-checking program, BOOM, in Bangladesh, on Sunday, as part of its ongoing effort to reduce the spread of misinformation, and improve the quality of news people find online.
BOOM will review and rate the accuracy of stories on Facebook, including photos and videos. When third-party fact-checkers rate a story as false, it appears lower in news feeds, significantly reducing its reach.
“We know that people want to see accurate information on Facebook and we are excited to announce the continued growth of our third-party fact-checking program through our partnership with BOOM for Bangladesh. We believe that with this fact-checking program, we can help build a more informed community and look forward to exploring more opportunities to expand this program locally.” said Anjali Kapoor, Facebook’s News Partnership Director, APAC.
The program is in line with Facebook’s three-part framework to improve the quality and authenticity of stories in news feed. When third-party fact-checkers write articles about a piece of content, Facebook shows them in Related Articles, immediately below the story in news feed.
Page admins and people on Facebook will also receive notifications if they try to share a post or have already shared one that has been determined to contain false information, empowering people to decide for themselves what to read, trust, and share.
“BOOM is delighted to expand our fact check operation into Bangladesh, with a dedicated team on ground, where we’ll debunk online misinformation on topics from health and medicine to current affairs. Fact checking is at the core of what we do and we are hopeful that with this effort, readers in Bangladesh will get the information they need to make informed decisions and be able to better identify factual news and information online," said Govind Ethiraj, Founder-Editor of BOOM.
Earlier this year, Facebook partnered with Banglalink for the second time to launch a digital literacy program - Internet 101. The program works to ensure that users learn best practices of internet safety through one-on-one training sessions at each of Banglalink’s 3,000 retail locations.
