Facebook brushes aside proposal over labelling of political news

WASHINGTON: While Facebook has said that it wants to draw the line between news and misinformation, the company turned down an offer to work with a news media trade group to help resolve a conflict, emails show.

News Media Alliance chief executive officer David Chavern on Monday offered a plan that would relieve some news organisations of a new Facebook requirement for any ads they buy that promote their articles about politics placed in a public database alongside the ad information of political candidates and groups.

His proposal would involve creating a list of media organisations that are deemed credible and would be exempt from the requirement.


In an email obtained by Bloomberg News, Campbell Brown, Facebook’s head of news partnerships, responded by saying the company would “take your suggestions to heart” but said the company planned to negotiate with publishers directly.

“We are working directly with publishers and have been having a lot of conversations with them about the best approach,” she added. “We all agree that more transparency is important, so any solution must meet those goals. We will share our plans soon. Thanks again for your input.” Chavern said in a statement that Facebook was attempting to “splinter the news industry by silencing the squeakiest wheel and leave the rest of the industry screaming.”