Facebook and Italy team up to teach students how to spot fake news

2025-04-28 10:37:49admin

If you're like me, you've seen Facebook friends post links to questionable blogs, people have texted you links to fake stories, and you see fake news articles all over Twitter.

Deciphering what's fake in the digital diaspora is an obvious problem to which immediate solutions haven't exactly been forthcoming, so schools in Italy have trained their focus on fixing the future.

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump claims he came up with the term 'fake news'

The Italian government is partnering with Facebook and Google to teach students across 8,000 high schools how to pick out conspiracies and fake information, according to The New York Times. The program will start at the end of October.

Chamber of Deputies President Laura Boldrini is leading the initiative alongside the Italian Ministry of Education, and she told The New York Timesthat it's important to make sure students -- who spend their days immersed in their devices -- are able to "defend themselves from lies."

Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Facebook will reportedly try to boost the program by aiming program ads at high schoolers, though Boldrini didn't seem excited about how the company could use the program to deflect from its own fake news problem.

Last month, the company announced it would provide a congressional committee with around 3,000 Facebook ads linked to Russian government attempts to undermine the integrity of the 2016 United States presidential election. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also recently revised a comment he made after the election, when he said it was "crazy" to think that the spread of fake news on Facebook had an effect on the election.

Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the partnership, but Laura Bononcini, who heads public policy for the company in Italy, Greece and Malta, told the Timesthat "education and media literacy are a crucial part of our effort to curb the spread of false news."

Facebook has shown that it, too, needs help with media literacy. Google and Facebook promoted fake news in the aftermath of the recent mass-shooting in Las Vegas, yet another reminder that it doesn't take much for false information to go mainstream.

Being able to spot fake news is undoubtedly a useful skill, but it would be easier to implement if algorithms spotted fake news before people had to decide whether it was real.

Featured Video For You

A giant inflatable 'Trump Rat' has invaded Manhattan