Facebook is using machine learning to spot hoax articles shared by spammers

Facebook's fight against fake news, hoaxes, and spammers will never be over for good, but the company is doing its best to keep up the pressure on bad actors on its network. Today, it announced a number of new measures, including using machine learning to spot hoax articles that are copied and pasted by different accounts. This isn't the first time Facebook has announced it's using AI to target misleading content, and it's clear that the company exaggerates AI's power to sort good content from bad. But it does seem to be taking small, sensible steps in applying the technology. Machine learning can't automatically fact-check stories or make nuanced judgments about misleading headlines, but it can recognize easily identifiable signals that suggest an account is up to no good.