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Were all well acquainted with the fake news phenomenon. But the good news is, Facebook has started to fight back, working with a coalition of fact-based media outlets.

Better late than never. The 2016 campaign was festooned with phony scoops like Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president and FBI agent suspected in Hillary email leaks found dead in apartment in murder-suicide and Hillary sold weapons to ISIS. Credulous social media users clicked and shared and were happy to get suckered.

Its no surprise that the con lives on. My new favorite bit of fakery, which has already been shared tens of thousands of times, and re-posted on dozens of websites with names like Angry Patriot and Trump Media, features this eye-candy headline:

BREAKING. Congress Moves to STOP Obamas Treasonous Coup Attempt Against Trump

Last I saw, Obama was photographed on a boating vacation, wearing cool shades and flashing a grin. He sure didnt look like somebody plotting a coup and seething with treason, but hey, maybe his vacay vibe was just part of the conspiracy. Maybe that explains why not a single Republican in Congress, or Spicer or Kellyanne, has breathed a word about what Obama has afoot.

Anyway, I bring all this up because ABC News - working with Facebook - has posted a deconstruction of the fake-news story, explaining how the infauxmation process worked.

Basically, this was the fake-news logic: Trump is plagued by government leakers; many government officials are civil servants who stay on the job from one administration to the next; some leakers might be officials carried over from the last administration; therefore, the leakers are partisan Obama loyalists; therefore, Obama is directing his loyalists; therefore, Obama is plotting a treasonous coup.

ABC News dryly concluded that, aside from the people making stuff up, no one is alleging that former President Obama is connected to the leaks or has committed treason because of these revelations.

But the most noteworthy true info comes at the bottom of the post: ABC News has launched The Real News About Fake News powered by Facebook data in which users report questionable stories and misinformation circulating on the platform. The stories will undergo rigorous reporting to determine if the claims made are false, exaggerated or out of context. Stories that editorial partners have also debunked will then appear flagged in your News Feed.

Facebook announced this project earlier this winter. The social network had long prided itself as a neutral bulletin board, but its leaders had come to realize that allowing sewage to flow unchecked was a negative.

So Facebook hooked up with ABC News, the Associated Press, FactCheck.org (housed at the University of Pennsylvania), Politifact and Snopes. Users can now flag stories they suspect to be fake, and stories that draw enough flags are typically steered to these fact-checking media sites. The Obama slime job met the specs for scrutiny.

Its nice to see some kind of pushback, even if these efforts dont really make a dent. The users who guzzle fake stories about Obama certainly wont accept a thumbs-down verdict from ABC News, which they probably dismiss as part of the conspiracy.

But theres hope for the reality-based community. A new Quinnipiac poll says when Americans are asked whom they trust to tell the truth about important issues, 52 percent choose the media, and only 37 percent tilt to Trump. No doubt he would dismiss those stats as fake news. I call it good news.

Dick Polman: can be reached at dickpolman7@gmail.com.

Original post:
Obama not planning coup - The Star Beacon