Facebook will block publishers from advertising if they share fake news

Facebook is taking another step toward clearing so-called fake news from the social network: Beginning Monday, it will block Pages that share fake news from advertising on Facebook at all.

In a blog post, Facebook said Pages that “repeatedly share stories marked as false” by third-party fact-checkers will be banned from buying ads. Facebook did not specify what “repeatedly” means in this case, or share more details on how many false articles a Page must send before it’s punished.

A spokesperson said it’s not sharing that info because it would “allow people to game the system.”

The ban is also not permanent. Pages will be allowed to advertise again if they “stop sharing false news.”

Facebook has been cracking down on false news since last fall, when many believe false news may have impacted the U.S. presidential election. Some of Facebook’s efforts have been to kill the business behind spreading misinformation. That means punishing the Pages or publishers sharing it.

Facebook already banned publishers from promoting a link or story that was deemed false by third-party fact-checkers.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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