Canadian PM Justin Trudeau Warns Facebook on fake News

Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has warned that his government would intervene with stricter federal regulations if the Facebook doesn’t address integrity issues.

He has warned social networking giant that it needs to fix its “fake news” problems. Trudeau told Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg that he was concerned the company wasn’t doing enough to stop the spread of misleading information on their platform.

Facebook has been under intense international scrutiny for allowing fake news to propagate on its network. Sometimes the “articles” are simply hoaxes, designed to profit from Facebook users’ clicks.

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But as seen during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the tactic can also mislead or manipulate citizens to further political ends. Facebook has also faced criticism about a lack of transparency around who is buying ads on its platform.

Canada is set for federal elections next year and thus the problem of fake news is a serious issue for the ruling party.