Facebook expands its fact-checking programme to Nigeria

Working with two partners, Africa Check; Africa’s first independent fact-checking organisation and AFP, a well-respected news organisation, both are part of a global network of fact-checking organizations, certified by the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network.

Facebook’s fact-checking programme relies on feedback from the Facebook community, as one of many signals Facebook uses to raise potentially false stories to fact-checkers for review.

Local articles will be fact-checked alongside the verification of photos and videos. If one of our fact-checking partners identifies a story as false, Facebook will show it lower in News Feed, significantly reducing its distribution.

Akua Gyekye, Facebook Public Policy Manager, Anglophone West Africa commented: “Nigeria is important to us and we’re committed to taking our responsibility seriously in tackling the spread of false news.