Facebook Blocks Pages Spreading 'Fake News' From Advertising

Facebook announced in a blog post that starting today it will ban business pages from advertising if they repeatedly share stories marked as false.

The move is aimed at protecting the users of the platform from so-called "fake news," by depriving those who spread misinformation of their source of income. Ad-blocking would make it harder for offenders to attract larger audiences.

"We've found instances of pages using Facebook ads to build their audiences in order to distribute false news more broadly," the post read.

"Now, if a page repeatedly shares stories that have been marked as false by third-party fact-checkers, they will no longer be able to buy ads on Facebook.

Cracking down on fake news distribution is nothing new to Facebook: the company has been working with third-party fact-checking organizations like Snopes and the Associated Press to flag inaccurate news stories for almost a year. If a story is marked as disputed, it is banned from being promoted through Facebook ads.

And earlier this month, Facebook launched another feature called Related Articles. This addition to the News Feed provides people easier access to alternative perspectives and information on hotly debated topics.

The newly announced ad bans are not permanent, though. According to Facebook, if pages stop sharing false news, they may be eligible to start running ads again.