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Facebook Is Running Ads in Mexican Newspapers Warning About Fake News

Facebook is taking a huge amount of heat this week amid mounting scandals over its allegedly reckless handling of user data, vulnerability to propaganda and disinformation efforts, and whether or not its internal response to those issues was mostly concerned with shoving those problems under a rug. The company’s stock has taken a double-digit hit—even if many market analysts say it is likely to recover—and pressure is mounting for some kind of consequences or regulatory response from politicians and the public. So it’s no surprise that the company is testing out a number of different types of damage control. Per Bloomberg, Facebook is now taking out full-page ads in major Mexican newspapers like El Financiero warning the public about “Fake News” in the leadup to the upcoming July 1, 2018 federal elections there. The ads run with the title “Tips to Detect Fake News,” and are accompanied by a Facebook logo in the corner. This is better than nothing. But warning people about “fake news” does not address the problem. For one, Facebook’s token efforts to actually crack down on that genre of content have repeatedly failed, which might have something to do with the fact that the entire platform is designed to profit from juicing engagement with minimal human oversight. These factors make Facebook a giant shout-box ripe for exploitation by people with ill intentions.