Facebook alters 'trending' feature to combat fake news

Social networking behemoth Facebook has begun to increase its efforts to combat the epidemic of 'fake news', by ensuring its trending feature only contains news from credible sources.

Starting immediately, the algorithm employed by Facebook will only display topics which are derived from a certain number of recognised publishers, as the company moves to solve the issue of hoax news.

The fake news issue became significant during the US presidential election, in which demonstrably false articles were shared thousands of times about candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, with many experts saying that it may well have had a bearing on the final result.

Mark Zuckerberg's company has also announced that trending feeds will not be tailored to each individual user, after it faced criticism relating to "filter bubbles", where users would only be exposed to content fitting with their own views.

"If just one story or post went viral, it wouldn't make it into the trending as it might previously," said Will Cathcart, Facebook vice president of product management. "It really takes a mass of publishers writing about the same topic to make the cut."

Cathcart added that the new arrangement would allow users to "learn about what's going on outside of the friends you talk with and follow on Facebook".

Facebook is increasingly becoming a news platform, with Zuckerberg admitting recently for the first time that it was a "media" company as much as it is a tech company.