Is it true that this instruction will help to avoid checking the fact of Facebook?

On social networks, posts were widely dispersed about how to prevent verification and, as a result, removal of posts or banks of users: supposedly we need to block users whose names contain the words Fact Check. We decided to check if it could work.

In the Russian -language segment of the social network Facebook* is very popular InstructionsAs you can avoid Checks of posts factory and a possible subsequent receipt of a note on the inaccuracy or blocking "For violation of moral standards due to nonsense or phrase." Users Consult In the settings block all users in whose names in a particular formulation Mentioned Fact. Supposedly if you repeat such procedure, Facebook will stop "making any complaints." Such postsgaining hundreds of reposts are accompanied screenshots with step by step InstructionsHow exactly this needs to be done. Some users called Such actions by the “struggle against shpion bots”.

First of all, it is worthwhile to figure out what a fact is a factory program Facebook And what the fact of facts do in its framework. To prevent the spread of misinformation, META*, which owns social networks Facebook, Instagram*and the WhatsApp*messenger, Collaborates With experts in checking information from more than 90 factory organizations around the world (for example, from the relevant units in the news agencies of the Associated Press and Reuters). Such experts evaluate the veracity of the statements in posts, conducting their own investigations, and when making a verdict they attach a link to the corresponding analysis posted on their resources. They can check the post with potential misinformation, which they came across even in their own news feed, or receive a request for verification from META, if, for example, other users complained to the publication. First of all, the posts containing relevant information on trend topics are checked. The factor does not block anyone and do not delete anything - in the posts containing false information, a dick with an appropriate mark just appears. If the user systematically publishes fakes, then platform It can limit the issuance of its posts in the recommendations, disable the possibility of monetization or apply some other measures aimed at restricting the spread of such content. 

At the same time, disinformation in the posts is not included in the list of reasons why Content They can delete, a page Temporarily or permanently block (the exception is only potentially dangerous for the life and health of people, fakes about Covid-19 or vaccination). Such radical measures Applied to posts with calls for violence, fraud, bullying, images of sexual actions, etc. These Violations They are revealed by built -in Facebook algorithms automatically or moderators of the platform after user complaints. Therefore, to protect yourself from punishment “for violation of moral standards because of nonsense or phrase”, as stated in a viral post (it is not clear what the authors of the posts mean by such a definition, but we can assume that we are talking about removing content, for example, for The use of curses), with the help of blocking, the fact of a factor cannot work out - these two things are simply in no way connected. In the rules of Facebook specially stipulatedthat inaccurate content can be removed, and measures are applied to the user if the post not only contains misinformation, but also violates certain norms of community.

If we talk about the possibility of protecting the posts for reliability, then the method described in the viral instruction can hardly be effective. The fact is that FACECHERSInforming information, living people. For the most part, they also have their own personal or business accounts on Facebook, under which they check the posts through a special program. In viral screenshots, it is proposed to block all users in whose names there are the words FACT Check or Fact Checker in different spelling variations, but there is no reason to believe that facts testing specialists in their user name. A certain meaning would be in blocking the real pages of Facturers, but the platform does not disclose their names, so it is not at all easy to calculate them and close access to their page as the instructions say. 

Finally, the fact that these actions did not have any effect is the fact that the fact of writing this analysis is no effect - after all, if all the factor, after the users' actions made according to the instructions, lost the opportunity to see such posts, “verified” would simply not have learned about their existence.

Thus, the actions described in the viral instructions on the prevention of blocking and restricting the actions of Facebook users are ineffective for several reasons at once. Firstly, it is impossible to calculate these facts from the META facts verification program by the proposed method. Secondly, publications recognized as inaccurate are not deleted, and their authors are not blocked-with rare exceptions. Such measures most often lead to violations of the rules of the platform, monitoring of which are not at all engaged in factor, but algorithms and moderators of social networks, so blocking of facts testing specialists cannot protect against a ban.

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Facebook and Instagram and the WhatsApp messenger, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Photo on the cover: Facebook Ilyana Maskaeva 

Not true

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