President Donald Trump took a jab at frequent rival CNN in a Sunday evening tweet questioning whether Facebook news quality filters will put the organization out of business.
Facebook has just stated that they are setting up a system to “purge” themselves of Fake News. Does that mean CNN will finally be put out of business?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2018
Trump’s tweet appears to have been sparked by a Fox News segment which aired Sunday morning highlighting the Facebook’s efforts to quell false political news heading into the 2018 midterm elections.
An October 11, 2018 photo shows the Facebook log-in page in Washington, DC. – Facebook on October 11, 2018 said it shut down 251 accounts for breaking rules against spam and coordinated deceit, some of it by ad farms pretending to be forums for political debate. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Facebook revealed to The New York Times that it has a team of nearly 20 people whose tasks will include monitoring and deleting potentially false political information posted to appear as news.
Facebook has received significant criticism for its handling of the 2016 presidential election in which Russian intelligence agents utilized its platform to post hyper-partisan content beneficial to both parties aimed at widening political divides in the U.S.