# Health Misinformation in Social Networks: A Survey of Information Technology Approaches
## 9 Current State of Popular Social Platforms in Combating Misinformation  
Below, we discuss the strategies adopted by various social media platforms to address misinformation. While the exact details of their algorithms remain undisclosed, these measures indicate the general direction taken to mitigate the spread of fake news. Since 2016, social media platforms have taken steps to curb the spread of misinformation, particularly after concerns that Facebook and Reddit may have influenced the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In response to criticism, Facebook partnered with fact-checking organizations such as FactCheck.org, Snopes, and Politifact to verify content and limit the reach of false information [217]. False information is ranked lower in the feed, while Facebook takes action against repeat offenders by reducing the distribution of false information and their ability to advertise. To further combat misinformation, Facebook deploys algorithms to find copies of misinformation with small differences and to identify whether a post contains claims that are commonly identified as misinformation by many fact-checkers. Users of the platform will be notified with more information over false information, while people who shared it will also be notified. Additionally, tools to identify posts that contain misinformation but for notifying fact-checkers if content that contains misinformation has been corrected or rated erroneously are also provided. In 2020, Facebook enhanced its efforts by deploying AI-driven tools [218] to detect and prevent misinformation at scale. Technologies like SimSearchNet++ enabled highly precise image matching, allowing the system to identify variations of known false content across Facebook and Instagram platforms. Additionally, Meta (Facebook was renamed to Meta in 2021) collaborated with 60 fact-checking organizations covering over 50 languages from around 130 countries to monitor COVID-19 misinformation [219], using AI to detect and limit the spread of flagged content. By 2022, Meta continued leveraging AI for fact-checking, particularly to improve the accuracy of Wikipedia entries [220] by maintaining and improving the quality of Wikipedia references through verifying the cited references. Regarding Reddit and COVID-19, there was a notable movement named \"going dark\", where various Reddit communities became inaccessible to outsiders as a protest toward COVID-19 skeptic Reddit communities (subreddits) [221] that were spreading misinformation. As a response, Reddit banned those subreddits (e.g., r/NoNewNormal) and started to collaborate with third-party fact-checking organizations. In addition, Reddit employs a multi-layered moderation system that combines community-driven moderation with automated tools. Individual subreddits set their own rules, enforced by volunteer moderators, who flag misinformation using labels. The platform also uses automated tools to proactively detect content and behaviors that violate its policies, although the specifics of these tools remain undisclosed [222]. Research has highlighted the effectiveness of Reddit's community-based moderation approach in controlling misinformation [223]. Regarding Twitter (Twitter was renamed to X in 2023), in 2020, it implemented content-monitoring systems to detect and label misleading information related to COVID-19, ensuring that such content was not amplified. The platform categorized misinformation into three types: misleading information, which was confirmed false by experts; disputed claims, where accuracy was contested; and unverified claims, which lacked confirmation at the time of sharing [224]. In 2021, Twitter introduced Birdwatch, a community-driven initiative allowing users to identify and provide context for misleading tweets [225]. Later that year, Twitter collaborated with Reuters and The Associated Press to improve information accuracy, with its Curation team sourcing reliable context for trending conversations [226].