Google and Facebook team up to eliminate fake news

In an age of technological proliferation in every which direction, there are many companies vying for power of the future over different mediums. Of course, we’re talking about Google and Facebook.

Just last month the CEO of Google,  Sundar Pichai, announced that the tech company will be developing artificial intelligence (AI) software that will cater to each customer by customizing their own personal experience through their medium. But Facebook was counting on this. In almost reactionary event fashion, Facebook also announced that it will be investing in AI in order for its users to have a more personalized newsfeed on their pages as well.

Now, the two corporations may be teaming up against a problem that has been plaguing the Internet since social media outlets started to dictate much of the web traffic flow. Those pesky click-bait advertisements and fake news. An announcement Monday from Google said that they will no longer allow websites that misrepresent content to use its AdSense advertising network. Facebook quickly followed suit and updated its advertising policies to ban deceptive and misleading content.

In the past, the two companies allowed websites to use their webpages for advertising, thus eliminating the incidental scenario of having to advertise on their own. It comes as a huge blow to the aforementioned websites as the two companies initially served as an outlet to reach millions of people across, and to also make money.

It’s a well-known axiom that these companies take up the wide majority of audience space on the Internet. So it remains to be seen where these fake news websites go or if they choose to change their advertising strategies moving forward.

What has come as a definitive announcement has been met with criticism coupled with doubt and skepticism. For example, Facebook’s current and long-standing system of dealing with these sites is to use inveterate algorithms that flag certain content as disposable due to Facebook users flagging them as inappropriate or deceptive in nature.

In either case, it will be intriguing to see how these companies will both follow in each other’s footsteps and how they choose to implement their plan in the future.