Fakebook takes another misstep

By GIANNA SANCHEZ

Instead of commercials and print advertisements, Facebook has found a new way to advertise for their company.

Facebook has allegedly paid The Daily Telegraph, a U.K. broadsheet, to write articles that defend Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The articles have been put under a collection called “Being human in the information age.” 26 stories have already been published in the last month under this umbrella.

Facebook has made this move because of the negative press it has been receiving in the last few months. By using articles to publish this positive information, it can manipulate the public. This is not a true article, but rather an advertisement through journalism. But this is not the same kind of advertising most companies are using.

This is the exact opposite sort of advertising Facebook should be doing right now. They are constantly under fire for the spread of “fake news” articles being posted on the platform. This is a form of fake news. It’s different if these types of articles were deemed commentaries or op-eds. If they are regularly posted in the newspaper, then this is misleading for the public. Many would consider Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg to be untrustworthy, why would I trust them after they pay for positive articles to be written about them?

The company spokesperson said this would help with marketing, but I think once more people find out about this, it will look like bad news for the company once again. Facebook should be working more on their security and fact checking rather than their marketing for a better Facebook.