Facebook Partners with Tirto.id to Introduce Third Party Fact Checking Feature

To reduce circulation of the fake news (hoax), Facebook pairs with Tirto.id to introduce third-party fact checker in Indonesia. Tirto.id, which already received certification from Independent International Fact Checking Network, will investigate the news involving any dubious data or information.

Indonesia is the first country in Asia Pacific to use the feature with more than 115 million monthly active users. Previously, the feature has been available in US, Italy, and Mexico. Facebook claims it cannot work alone to filter all fake news.

"Facebook will recommend post with alleged fake news to Tirto.id. Later the its distribution will be reduced in the newsfeed," Alice Budisatrijo, Facebook Indonesia's News Partnership Lead, said.

On the number of fake news to be filtered, both Facebook and Tirto.id haven't confirmed. The feature will be focused on quality, not on quantity.

"We can't determine what kind of news will be fact-checked, but we'll decide whether it has false information, not only from Facebook's trending topic."

Tirto.id's supporting articles will be attached

News with false information will be marked along with Tirto.id's s supporting articles. Therefore, users can read debunking version of the fake news spread in their newsfeed.

"There will be some users still seeing fake news after the fact-checking, but we'll attach supporting articles containing correct information," Budisatrijo said.

To ensure the fact-checking process is correct, Tirto.id is still on trial and training its team. Even in the early stage, both Facebook and Tirto.id want to make sure to the fake news is clarified correctly.

"Facebook alone has been able to filter out fake news based on user's complaints, this partnership is expected to help Facebook getting better in reducing fake news on the timeline," she said.

Furthermore, Facebook will partner with more media, institutions, and government to be a third-party fact checker. The requirement is for the institutions to have been certified by International Fact-Checking Network.

– Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian