Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Facebook works with more than 30 fact-checking agencies

Two leading fact-checking agencies have stopped their work with Facebook, striking a blow to the network's efforts to fight fake news.

The social network had paid the Associated Press and Snopes to combat its misinformation crisis.

But both firms confirmed they are no longer checking articles. The AP told the BBC it was in "ongoing conversations" about work in future.

Facebook said it was committed to fighting fake news.

The company said it would expand its efforts in 2019.

"Fighting misinformation takes a multi-pronged approach from across the industry," a Facebook spokeswoman told the BBC.

"We are committed to fighting this through many tactics, and the work that third-party fact-checkers do is a valued and important piece of this effort.

"We have strong relationships with 34 fact-checking partners around the world who fact-check content in 16 languages, and we plan to expand the programme this year by adding new partners and languages."

'Open dialogue'

A spokeswoman for the AP told the BBC: "AP constantly evaluates how to best deploy its fact-checking resources, and that includes ongoing conversations with Facebook about opportunities to do important fact-checking work on its platform."

Snopes said it needed to "determine with certainty that our efforts to aid any particular platform are a net positive for our online community, publication and staff”.

The site's founder David Mikkelson, and head of operations Vinny Green, said in a blog post that the firm did not rule out working with Facebook in future.

"We hope to keep an open dialogue going with Facebook to discuss approaches to combating misinformation that are beneficial to platforms, fact-checking organisations and the user community alike," the company said.

The blog post acknowledged that choosing not to renew its work with Facebook would have financial repercussions for the company.

In 2017, Facebook paid Snopes $100,000 (£76,500) for its work. Snopes has not yet released its financial disclosures for 2018.

"Forgoing an economic opportunity is not a decision that we or any other journalistic enterprise can take lightly in the current publishing landscape," the company said.

'Mishandled'

Late last year, the Guardian published a report that suggested fact-checking firms were frustrated by Facebook’s lack of transparency.

The article quoted former Snopes managing editor Brooke Binkowski as saying: “They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR. They’re not taking anything seriously. They are more interested in making themselves look good and passing the buck… They clearly don’t care.”

In a blog post, Facebook disputed the Guardian's report, saying it had "several inaccuracies".

Speaking about the news Snopes and the AP had pulled out, Ms Binkowski said she felt Facebook was too controlling over the fact-checking companies.

"Facebook can't handle any kind of pushback, any kind of public criticism," she told the BBC, adding that she felt the fact-checking programme at Facebook had been "mishandled".

Facebook has worked with two other fact-checking agencies in the US. One, Politifact, told the BBC it intended to continue working with Facebook in 2019. The other, Factcheck.org, did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

Do you have more information about this or any other technology story? You can reach Dave directly and securely through encrypted messaging app Signal on: +1 (628) 400-7370</s>Claim: Snopes will no longer be serving as the fact checker for social media giant Facebook.

The fact-checking site Snopes has announced that it is no longer serving as the in-house fact checker for the social media site, a relationship that began in the wake of the many false articles that gained viral interest on Facebook during the 2016 presidential election. As the BBC reported, Snopes is now the second fact-checking agency to cut ties with Facebook after the Associated Press also confirmed that it stopped checking articles for Facebook after its contract expired at the end of last year.

The report noted that Facebook still maintains a robust fact-checking arsenal, hoping to combat the rampant fake news that spread in 2016, partly through a Russian campaign to interfere in the presidential election with the hope of electing Donald Trump.

“We are committed to fighting this through many tactics, and the work that third-party fact-checkers do is a valued and important piece of this effort,” a spokesperson for Facebook told the BBC. “We have strong relationships with 34 fact-checking partners around the world who fact-check content in 16 languages, and we plan to expand the program this year by adding new partners and languages.”

Snopes had been paid $100,000 for its work with Facebook in 2017, the report noted, but the fact-checking site that got its start busting urban legends before taking on political stories said it needed to make sure that its efforts were “a net positive for our online community, publication and staff.”

The departures of Snopes and the Associated Press comes as Facebook faces pressure for its role in allowing fake news to spread on its site and for failing to disclose that it had accepted foreign funding for American political advertisements in 2016.

Last year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was grilled for nearly 10 hours by the House and Senate amid reports that the site allowed Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to Donald Trump, to access information from close to 50 million users without their knowledge. As CNN reported, Zuckerberg took responsibility for the breach.

“We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “I’ve been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Snopes founder David Mikkelson said he did not rule out working with Facebook again in the future.</s>San Francisco, Feb 2 (IANS) Two leading fact-checking agencies have ended their partnerships with Facebook, striking a significant blow to the network’s efforts to fight fake news, media reports said.

The social network had paid the Associated Press and Snopes to combat its misinformation crisis. But both confirmed they stopped checking articles at the end of 2018, and will not renew their contracts, the BBC reported.

The Associated Press confirmed to TechCrunch that it was “not currently doing fact-checking work for Facebook”.

An AP spokesperson told the BBC: “AP constantly evaluates how to best deploy its fact-checking resources, and that includes ongoing conversations with Facebook about opportunities to do important fact-checking work on its platform.”

The AP representative contacted TechCrunch to say that although it was not doing fact checking work for the program, it was not leaving it altogether.

Snopes, the popular myth-busting website, has said it was ending its partnership with Facebook as part of a “difficult, but necessary change”.

A Snopes statement on Friday said it was “evaluating the ramifications and costs of providing third-party fact-checking services” and wants the efforts to be “a net positive for our online community, publication, and staff”, the Guardian reported.

Late last year, the Guardian had published a report that suggested fact-checking firms were frustrated by Facebook’s lack of transparency.

The article had quoted former Snopes managing editor Brooke Binkowski as saying: “They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR. They’re not taking anything seriously. They are more interested in making themselves look good and passing the buck They clearly don’t care.”

Facebook had disputed the report, saying it had “several inaccuracies”.

Speaking about the pull out by the key fact checkers, Binkowski said she felt Facebook was too controlling over the fact-checking companies.

“Facebook can’t handle any kind of pushback, any kind of public criticism,” she told the BBC, adding that she felt the fact-checking programme at Facebook had been “mishandled”.

Facebook has worked with two other fact-checking agencies in the US. One, Politifact, told the BBC it intended to continue working with Facebook in 2019. The other, Factcheck,org, did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.

Snopes said it needed to “determine with certainty that our efforts to aid any particular platform are a net positive for our online community, publication and staff”.

The site’s founder David Mikkelson, and head of operations Vinny Green, said in a blog post that the firm did not rule out working with Facebook in future.

“We hope to keep an open dialogue going with Facebook to discuss approaches to combating misinformation that are beneficial to platforms, fact-checking organisations and the user community alike,” the company said.

The blog post acknowledged that choosing not to renew its work with Facebook would have financial repercussions for the company.

In 2017, Facebook paid Snopes $100,000 for its work. Snopes has not yet released its financial disclosures for 2018.

“Forgoing an economic opportunity is not a decision that we or any other journalistic enterprise can take lightly in the current publishing landscape,” the company said.

Facebook said it was committed to fighting fake news and said it would expand its efforts in 2019.

“We are committed to fighting this through many tactics, and the work that third-party fact-checkers do is a valued and important piece of this effort.

“We have strong relationships with 34 fact-checking partners around the world who fact-check content in 16 languages, and we plan to expand the programme this year by adding new partners and languages.”

Facebook’s fact checking collaboration began after the 2016 US presidential poll led to significant concerns about propaganda and false news polluting the site.

It has since experimented with different tools to stop the spread of misinformation, including limiting the reach of articles debunked by journalist partners.

Studies and analyses of the initiative have repeatedly raised questions about whether the partnership was making a difference, and Facebook has refused to release meaningful data, the Guardian said.</s>A Snopes statement said it was "evaluating the ramifications and costs of providing third-party fact-checking services," and wants the efforts to be "a net positive for our online community, publication, and staff."

The statement did not elaborate but Snopes vice president Vinny Green told the media education group Poynter the partnership was excessively labor intensive, requiring manual updates to fact checks by its staff of 16.

"With a manual system and a closed system, it's impossible to keep on top of that stuff," Green told Poynter.

Green posted Snopes' statement on Twitter later commenting: "A difficult, but necessary change for Snopes in 2019."

Snopes said it agreed to partner with Facebook "without financial benefit to ourselves," but added that it faces increasing financial difficulties.

"Just as we believe credible and reliable content creators deserve to be paid for their work, we believe that fact-checkers should be compensated commensurately for the valuable services they provide to platforms," the statement said.

Snopes partnered with Facebook in 2016 on fact-checking and has been one of many global organizations that have agreements with the social network to help it fight misinformation.

Facebook said in a statement: "We value the work that Snopes has done, and respect their decision as an independent business."

The California-based social network added: "We are committed to fighting this through many tactics, and the work that third-party fact-checkers do is a valued and important piece of this effort.

"We have strong relationships with 34 fact-checking partners around the world who fact-check content in 16 languages, and we plan to expand the program this year by adding new partners and languages."

Snopes, which claims to the oldest internet fact-checking operation, was founded in 1994 as Urban Legends Reference Pages.

Facebook ramped up an effort on fact-checking after being accused of disseminating misinformation during the 2016 US election.

It uses artificial intelligence to flag questionable content and then sends any dubious posts to the independent fact-checkers.

Depending on the determination by those fact-checkers, Facebook may demote a post or add a message indicating it had been verified.

In the United States, Facebook has been working with FactCheck.org and PolitiFact in addition to Snopes. Facebook buys fact-checking content from AFP in over 14 countries.

Explore further: Fact-checking site Snopes pleads for help to stay alive</s>Snopes Media Group Inc, one of Facebook Inc’s first fact-checking partners, said it’s ending the relationship after two years, even though the decision may cause financial distress.

“We want to determine with certainty that our efforts to aid any particular platform are a net positive for our online community, publication, and staff,” the company said.

Snopes’ contract with Facebook was worth $100,000 in 2017, but was far more valuable than that for Facebook, which frequently touted its fact-checking partners as helping combat the fake news problem on its site. Snopes said it hasn’t ruled out working with Facebook, or any other platforms, in the future.

Facebook has been working since the 2016 US election to rein in misinformation across its platform, though its results have been spotty. External fact-checking partners have criticized Facebook’s attempts as only scratching the surface of false content on the social network.

The fact-checking efforts are often understaffed and have only recently begun to address the explosion of misleading photo and video content. Repeat offenders have also found workarounds. One site that was frequently flagged by fact-checkers simply changed the name of its site, Poynter reported this week.

“We value the work that Snopes has done, and respect their decision as an independent business,” Facebook said, noting that it has 34 other fact-checking partners.

Fact-checking initiatives may not be as important for the site’s misinformation problems as other technological improvements, like detecting fake accounts trying to spread the content, Alex Stamos, Facebook’s former head of security, said on Twitter.

“The fact checking partnerships were always PR, because it’s the kind of well-understood, visible intervention that journalists can see and cover,” Stamos tweeted. “The really effective product changes are often invisible.”</s>There are numerous problems associated with Facebook, but the two that are talked about most are privacy and the spread of "fake news". To help combat the dissemination of misinformation, the social network partnered with numerous companies and news outlets to fact-check stories.

One of these partners was Snopes, the site famous for debunking myths, urban legends and fake news. But now the site has announced that it is ending its partnership with Facebook, citing " the ramifications and costs of providing third-party fact-checking services".
• Facebook has been paying people to install a VPN that harvests data about them
• Try not to laugh -- for Data Privacy Day, Facebook wants you to take a Privacy Checkup

Snopes has been involved in Facebook's fact-checking venture for two years, and in 2017 was paid $100,000 by the social network -- of which it says "just as we believe credible and reliable content creators deserve to be paid for their work, we believe that fact-checkers should be compensated commensurately for the valuable services they provide to platforms".

But now Snopes has decided not to renew its partnership with Facebook. Announcing the decision, Vinny Green and David Mikkelson from the organization say:

At this time we are evaluating the ramifications and costs of providing third-party fact-checking services, and we want to determine with certainty that our efforts to aid any particular platform are a net positive for our online community, publication, and staff. To be clear, we have not ruled out working with Facebook or any other platforms in the future. We hope to keep an open dialogue going with Facebook to discuss approaches to combating misinformation that are beneficial to platforms, fact-checking organizations, and the user community alike, and we particularly hope Mr. Zuckerberg meets with fact-checkers as part of his recently announced series of public discussions.

As reported by the Guardian, Snopes' former managing editor, Brooke Binkowski, was always opposed to the partnership, believing it to be a conflict of interest. He says:

This all could have been avoided if they had not taken money from Facebook to begin with. It was a huge conflict of interest. You cannot speak truth to power if you're being paid directly by power... We cannot pressure Facebook for transparency if we're their employees.

Facebook will continue to work with other fact-checkers to help verify stories that are posted on the site, and Snopes will continue to debunk news itself; the two will simply not be working together.</s>Two of Facebook’s four fact checkers, Snopes and the Associated Press, have abruptly ended their fact-checking relationship with the social media giant.

In a Friday press release, Snopes said that it had “elected not to renew our partnership with Facebook,” and while declining to reveal specifics, added that “Forgoing an economic opportunity is not a decision that we or any other journalistic enterprise can take lightly.”

While Snopes initially agreed to fact check for free, they eventually accepted $100,000 for its fact-checking services last year.

The announcement comes on the heels of a December report that the two-year relationship between Facebook and its fact checkers was in disarray.



 Snopes co-founders David and Barbara Mikkelson. Barbara is no longer involved in the company following David’s infidelity with prostitutes and alleged embezzlement.

“Current and former Facebook factcheckers told the Guardian that the tech platform’s collaboration with outside reporters has produced minimal results and that they’ve lost trust in Facebook, which has repeatedly refused to release meaningful data about the impacts of their work. Some said Facebook’s hiring of a PR firm that used an antisemitic narrative to discredit critics – fueling the same kind of propaganda factcheckers regularly debunk – should be a deal-breaker.” -The Guardian

“They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR, said former Snopes managing editor Brooke Binkowski. “They’re not taking anything seriously. They are more interested in making themselves look good and passing the buck…They clearly don’t care.”

Binkowski left Snopes last year and started her own factchecking site, truthorfiction.com. She told The Guardian last year that Facebook ignored her concerns about the spread of misinformation in Myanmar during the anti-Muslim Rohingya crisis when over 500,000 refugees fled Bangladesh amid persecution.

“I was bringing up Myanmar over and over and over,” said Binkowski. “They were absolutely resistant.”

Facebook also pushed its fact checkers to prioritize debunking misinformation that affected its advertisers, according to Binkowski, something she said crossed a line. “You’re not doing journalism any more. You’re doing propaganda,” she said – a charge Facebook denied in a blogpost.

While Snopes and it’s factcheckers grievances are well known, AP gave no explanation for their decision, though they noted in a statement to TechCrunch that while it was “no longer doing fact checking work for the program, it is not leaving it altogether.”

One current Facebook factchecker not authorized to speak publicly questioned why they’re working for the same company that paid a PR firm to promote anti-Semitic fake news about billionaire George Soros.

“Why should we trust Facebook when it’s pushing the same rumors that its own factcheckers are calling fake news?” said the factchecker. “It’s worth asking how do they treat stories about George Soros on the platform knowing they specifically pay people to try to link political enemies to him?”

“Working with Facebook makes us look bad,” added the journalist.

Another factchecker told The Guardian in December that they were demoralized. “They are a terrible company and, on a personal level, I don’t want to have anything to do with them.”

Buzzfeed recently let go of more than 200 employees with reports that about 2,100 people have lost media jobs in the last 2 weeks. Alex reveals why Obama is responsible.</s>Snopes.com, an online fact-checking site that got its start debunking urban legends, on Friday said it wouldn't be renewing its partnership with Facebook Inc. (FB).

"At this time we are evaluating the ramifications and costs of providing third-party fact-checking services, and we want to determine with certainty that our efforts to aid any particular platform are a net positive for our online community, publication, and staff," Snopes said on its website.

Snopes said it initially began working with Facebook in December 2016 and without financial benefits to itself. The website did eventually accept an offer from Facebook to compensate fact-checking groups working with the social media company.

On its financial disclosure page, Snopes said it received $100,000 from Facebook for participating in its fact-checking partnership.

A spokesperson for Facebook said, "We value the work that Snopes has done and respect their decision as an independent business. Fighting misinformation takes a multi-pronged approach from across the industry. We are committed to fighting this through many tactics, and the work that third-party fact-checkers do is a valued and important piece of this effort."

The spokesperson said Facebook has 34 fact-checking partners globally, and it plans to expand the program this year by adding new partners.</s>Snopes began contributing to Facebook's fact-checking initiative in 2016, at first for free and then with additional compensation from Facebook. Despite the benefit the funding provided, Poynter reports the operation was stretched too thin trying to work within Facebook's system. Facebook required fact-checkers to manually enter each false post the flag in a dashboard, and for Snopes -- a company with just 16 employees -- the work required started to outweigh the benefit it was providing. Facebook also came under fire at times for withholding data from fact-checkers that may have helped them do their jobs.

Snopes' contract with Facebook ended in December and the operation attempted to negotiate a new deal with Facebook that would make it easier to flag false stories on the platform. More broadly, Snopes was hoping to expand fact-checking efforts beyond just Facebook's ecosystem. Snopes said it's still open to working with the social network, but will spend the lead up to the 2020 US presidential election focusing on its own service rather than doing work for Facebook.</s>Snopes, a fact-checking organization, announced on Friday its decision to end its partnership with Facebook, which has been ramping its efforts to curb misinformation on its services since the 2016 U.S. election.

Facebook and Snopes had been working together since December 2016 to fact check content on the social network. The company in 2017 paid Snopes as much as $100,000 for the work, according to Snopes.

"At this time we are evaluating the ramifications and costs of providing third-party fact-checking services, and we want to determine with certainty that our efforts to aid any particular platform are a net positive for our online community, publication, and staff," Snopes said in a statement.

Snopes said it has not closed the door on working with the company again, but it encouraged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to meet "with fact-checkers as part of his recently announced series of public discussions" in 2019.

The partnership is ending weeks after a report by The Guardian, in which multiple former Snopes employees criticized Facebook's efforts to stop fake content on its services.

"They've essentially used us for crisis PR," one former employee told The Guardian.

"Misinformation is an ever-evolving problem that we're committed to fighting globally, and the work that third-party fact-checkers do to help review content on Facebook is a valued and important piece of this effort," Facebook said in a blog post in December. At the time, the company said it had 35 fact-checking partners around the world.

A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC that the company still has 34 other organizations it works with to fact check news on the site.

"We value the work that Snopes has done, and respect their decision as an independent business," the spokesperson said. "Fighting misinformation takes a multi-pronged approach from across the industry. We are committed to fighting this through many tactics, and the work that third-party fact-checkers do is a valued and important piece of this effort. We have strong relationships with 34 fact-checking partners around the world who fact-check content in 16 languages, and we plan to expand the program this year by adding new partners and languages."

WATCH: Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok have a massive underage user problem — here's why it matters
The Associated Press and Snopes say they are no longer providing fact-checking services for Facebook.