Is Facebook starting a News video section to stave off fake news?
Facebook is looking to add a news component to its video-centric Watch platform this year, with the company talking to a number of publishers.
- Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook could be readying a News section on its Facebook Watch video service, in an apparent attempt to curb the spread of "fake news."
That's the word from Axios, which reports that Facebook is in talks with 10 publishers to launch the dedicated news section.
The section will reportedly run for 12 months, with Facebook requiring publishers to submit videos of at least 3 minutes in length and monitoring what kind of content works best.
Campbell Brown, Facebook's global head of news partnerships, told CNET that "timely news" would be part of a push for new types of programming on Facebook Watch.
"As part of our broader effort to support quality news on Facebook, we plan to meet with a wide-range of potential partners to develop, learn and innovate on news programming tailored to succeed in a social environment. Our early conversations have been encouraging, and we're excited about the possibilities ahead," Brown said.
Facebook launched its YouTube competitor Watch in August, and last week secured exclusive rights to stream 25 Major League Baseball games.
The social network has been working on ways to combat the spread of so-called "fake news" on its site for the past year, and is now allowing users to fact-check stories with a Related Articles section.
Update 12:35 p.m. ET: Added comment from Facebook