Facebook has
announced more African languages will be covered in its effort to curb fake
news.
The social
media giant said the new language support is part of its third-party
fact-checking program in partnership with Africa Check, an independent
fact-checking organization.
A joint
statement released by Africa Check and Facebook said the number of languages covered by the
fact-checking effort will expand by 10.
This will
include South Africa’s Afrikaans; Swahili, widely spoken in Kenya; Nigeria’s
Yoruba; and Wolof, native to Senegal.
The program,
launched in 2018, helps to monitor the accuracy of news shared on Facebook.
Executive
director of Africa Check, Noko Makgato, says the expansion helps ensure that misinformation
in languages other than English and French can be identified and tackled.
Makgato said
the Africa Check team will review and rate video, text, and photo content that
have been flagged as possibly containing fake news.
Stories identified
as inaccurate will be shown lower in the social site’s news feed, reducing its
distribution.
Kojo Boakye,
Facebook’s head of public policy for Africa, says the social media giant will
continue to invest in efforts to curb the spread of false news.
