The Clinton campaign's chief digital strategist on Monday blamed Facebook for enabling the spread of misinformation about the Democratic nominee — and said Democrats in and out of government have been looking at how to tackle the "big problem" of fake news on the social network.

"Everyone has the right to say what they want, have access to sites that they want, share what they want," Teddy Goff told POLITICO. "But a publisher with a record of making stuff up is not likely to rank that highly on Google, and the equivalent ought to be the case on Facebook."

Critics on the left say false headlines on Facebook harmed Hillary Clinton and helped swing the election to Donald Trump. One fake news story titled "FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead" from sources like The Denver Guardian, The Free Patriot and Red Flag News circulated on the social network prior to the election. Another, under the headline "Michelle Obama Deletes Hillary Clinton From Twitter," was picked up by conservative radio host Sean Hannity, who later apologized for spreading the lie.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has dismissed as "pretty crazy" the idea that the distribution of fake and misleading news items on the site could have influenced the 2016 presidential election.

"Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99 percent of what people see is authentic. Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes," the Facebook CEO wrote in a post Saturday night. "The hoaxes that do exist are not limited to one partisan view, or even to politics. Overall, this makes it extremely unlikely hoaxes changed the outcome of this election in one direction or the other."

A BuzzFeed News analysis found that three big right-wing Facebook pages published false or misleading information 38% of the time during the period analyzed, and three large left-wing pages did so in nearly 20% of posts.

Facebook follows Google in banning fake news sites from its ad network

Hours after Google announced it would ban sites that peddle fake news stories from using its advertising network, Facebook has followed suit. The social network announced today that it was now adding fake news sites to the list of sources already barred from using its Facebook Audience Network ads — a list that previously included misleading, illegal, and deceptive sites.

“While implied, we have updated the policy to explicitly clarify that this applies to fake news,” a Facebook spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal. “We vigorously enforce our policies and take swift action against sites and apps that are found to be in violation. Our team will continue to closely vet all prospective publishers and monitor existing ones to ensure compliance.”


Facebook has followed Google’s lead

Facebook has faced criticism for its role in the US presidential elections — specifically for spreading and perpetuating inaccurate stories dressed up as real news. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that the idea fake news on the platform influenced the election is “crazy,” but a number of Facebook employees apparently think differently, with some reportedly organizing a secret “task force” to solve the problem of deliberately misleading stories proliferating on the social network.

By restricting Facebook’s ads, Zuckerberg’s company is at least doing something to combat the issue now, but the move won’t solve the problem outright. Fake stories with inflammatory headlines will still be capable of scoring millions of views, making it financially viable for people to invent news — such as the Pope’s apparent support of Donald Trump — that is patently false.

Should have hired a real pro. Like DiCaro.

I think all fake news media should be illegal including The Daily Show.

I stopped watching once Stewart was done. Is that really fake? It has an agenda, but not like Faux News.

Well, I would say so. But of course I wasn't serious. There are bullshit stories from all political persuasions. This is just more crying by the Clinton campaign and refusal to own up to the real problem- a terrible candidate.

I think all fake news media should be illegal including The Daily Show.

There is a difference between Facebook Ads and people liking / sharing those alt-right pages' content. I've never seen the fake news as Sponsored Posts.

This "Digital Chief" lost to a guy who ragetweeted at people at 3am on twitter during his campaign.

He needs a new career.

Me either. I typed that's not true hundreds of times over the past 18 months. Over the past year more and more people claimed that the mainstream sources were wrong no matter what was posted. Based on MANY of the articles I saw Hillary should spend the rest of her life in prison and Trump should be given a medal of honor.

Where is spmack or Goggles to start the 'Clinton Digital Chef' thread?

This "Digital Chief" lost to a guy who ragetweeted at people at 3am on twitter during his campaign.

He needs a new career.

Where is spmack or Goggles to start the 'Clinton Digital Chef' thread?

It was tiring to read all the pro-Trump sentiments on social media.