San Francisco (AFP)
Facebook confirmed Tuesday on its platform the creation of a space "News" which will present to its users the main news of the day, with the assistance of a team of experienced journalists.
The social network will rely on the experience of professional journalists to select relevant and reliable articles.
Another part of the content will be chosen by algorithms. These will determine and target the interests of Internet users who frequent the network, according to the "signals" left by the pages consulted, with which they interacted or following their subscriptions.
"Our goal with this + News + tab is to provide an extremely personalized and thoughtful experience," said Campbell Brown, head of Facebook Information Partnerships, AFP.
"For the + Top News + section of the tab, we are bringing together a small team of journalists to make sure we highlight the right articles," she said.
But for all of the articles in the entire news section, the choice will be largely determined by software, according to Ms. Brown.
Facebook, based in California, has launched in recent years a series of initiatives to support or strengthen journalism while the role of social networks in spreading false information or hoaxes is regularly denounced.
"Our goal this year is to focus on having this Facebook + News + service up to scratch," Brown wrote earlier on Twitter.
"We're still in the early stages, but we're getting a very good feedback on the product, and I think we can give Facebook users a better press experience," she said.
Facebook would pay some publishers for a license to use their content.
In an interview at the beginning of the year, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he wanted "to be sure, as far as possible, to finance journalism of the highest quality possible".
© 2019 AFP