Facebook's struggle with defining its place in the media world has played out publicly over the past several months, coming to a head just after the election when some raised questions about whether fake news articles passed around on the site could have influenced it.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg dismissed that possibility as "extremely unlikely" in the days after the election. But continued questions about Facebook and other tech firms' responsibility to vet news or curtail misinformation eventually led to Facebook announcing it would begin submitting stories reported as false to third-party fact-checking sites, and labeling stories that were found to be "disputed" for all its users.
The new project has the same philosophy as Facebook's announcement late last year that it felt it had a responsibility to reduce fake news on its site, said Justin Osofsky, Facebook's vice president of global operations and media partnerships. "This is, in some ways a continuation of those efforts," he said. "But it's bringing it together in a way that gives us more playback from publishers and journalists."
What, exactly, any of this will look like is yet to be determined. Wednesday's announcement is meant to spark discussions, Osofsky said, and lead to new partnerships. "This is us announcing a road map," he said. "We can't have all the answers."
