Facebook and Google want to cut off fake news...


Both tech giants are taking aim at display advertisements, one of the big ways fake news websites can make money.

Fake news has been at the center of a national discussion over the past week, with some accusing Facebook of swaying voters by allowing misinformation on its widely read News Feed, such as the viral post that incorrectly stated the Pope had endorsed Donald Trump. Another post claimed actor Denzel Washington "backs Trump in the most epic way possible.

Many Americans — 62 percent to be exact — get some news from social media, according to the Pew Research Center. Of that group, 18 percent say they do so "often."

But Zuckerberg said the amount of fake news on Facebook is minuscule — though it's not always easy to separate fact from fiction. Some websites post incendiary headlines and have internet addresses that, at first glance, may trick readers into thinking they're reading a story from a legitimate news outlet.

"Fake news has become more predominant because the barriers to creating a website and articles are much lower," Thales Teixeira, a professor at Harvard Business School who specializes in the "economics of attention," told NBC News

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-google-crack-down-fake-news-advertising-n684101