(Reuters) - Facebook Inc (O:FB) said on Wednesday it has reached an agreement with news agency Reuters, a unit of Thomson Reuters Corp (N:TRI) (TO:TRI), to fact-check content posted on the social media platform and its photo-sharing app Instagram.
Under pressure to remove fake news on its platform ahead of the U.S. presidential elections, Facebook started a U.S. pilot program in December to detect misinformation faster.
The move came after U.S. intelligence agencies said that social media platforms were used in a Russian cyber-influence campaign aimed at interfering in the 2016 U.S. election – a claim Moscow has denied.
A newly created unit at Reuters will fact-check user-generated photos, videos, headlines and other content for Facebook's U.S. audience in both English and Spanish, the news agency said in a statement. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Facebook works with seven other fact-checking partners in the United States, including Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.