Facebook Stumbles With Early Effort to Stamp Out Fake News

Facebook is struggling to stamp out fake news. The company outsources the process to third-party fact checkers who can only tackle a small fraction of the bogus news that floods the social network, according to interviews with people involved in the process. And screenshots obtained by Bloomberg reveal a process that some partners say is too cumbersome and inefficient to stop misinformation duplicating and spreading. “There is no silver bullet," Facebook said. "This is part of a multi-pronged approach to combating false news. We have seen real progress in our efforts so far, but are not nearly done yet.” The flaws highlight a fundamental question that will be asked this week when internet companies testify in front of Congressional committees: How responsible should Facebook, Google and Twitter Inc. be for information others distribute through their systems?