Facebook tamped down on hoax sites, but polarisation thrives


  • TECH
  • Monday, 05 Nov 2018

Facebook has doubled the amount of time that users need to wait before a request to delete their profile is honoured. — dpa

In February, the YourNewsWire page on Facebook was at its peak popularity, boosted by its salacious post claiming that Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, was Fidel Castro’s love child. 

That story, shared 1,800 times, represented exactly the kind of content Facebook Inc. had promised to clean up on its site – and which YourNewsWire prolifically produced. It was created to drive attention, and therefore advertising revenue. It was also provably false. 

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