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Today on \u201cToday<\/a>,\u201d Sheryl Sandberg dismissed Facebook\u2019s role in the 2016 presidential election. Still, she didn\u2019t want you to forget that Facebook plays a relevant part\u00a0in political and social movements, just not in a way that went on to influence the results of the most divisive election in modern American history.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople come to Facebook to share what matters to them, so the top list is always a reflection of those moments,\u201d Sandberg told \u201cToday\u201d host\u00a0Savannah\u00a0Guthrie, discussing Facebook\u2019s most talked about topics in 2016<\/a>. \u201cNot surprising that the U.S. election was the number one topic, because people took to Facebook to share what they care about.\u201d<\/p>\n Guthrie went on to ask the Facebook COO if\u00a0fake news turned out to be more of a problem than Facebook originally thought.<\/p>\n \u201cWell we\u2019ve been working on this for a long time and we\u2019ve taken important steps, but there\u2019s a lot more to do. We know that people don\u2019t want to see hoaxes on Facebook and we don\u2019t want to see hoaxes on Facebook. And so we\u2019re working on it, because misinformation is something we take seriously and something we\u2019re going to continue to iterate on the service.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Sandberg\u2019s canny switch to more benign language about\u00a0\u201choaxes\u201d\u00a0hearkens back to a more innocent time<\/a>, one in which Facebook\u2019s bogus viral content wasn\u2019t yet a thriving\u00a0cottage industry<\/a> with deep\u00a0political and cultural consequences.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, in\u00a0spite of Sandberg\u2019s\u00a0claims, all evidence points to the contrary: Since they usually can\u2019t\u00a0distinguish it from the truth<\/a>\u00a0anyway,\u00a0people care deeply about misinformation. It\u2019s no surprise that, as Buzzfeed reported<\/a>, fake news outpaced the performance of real news on the platform into late 2016. In spite of all the bad press, Facebook itself clearly benefits from that\u00a0proliferation. After all, it\u2019s the stickiest content around.<\/p>\n When pressed again if deliberately misleading news stories \u201cplayed a bigger role than [Facebook] thought, in retrospect,\u201d Sandberg elaborated:<\/p>\n \u201cWell, there have been claims that it swayed the election and we don\u2019t think it swayed the election. But we take that responsibility really seriously and we\u2019re looking at things like working with third parties, helping to label false news, doing the things we can do to make it clearer what\u2019s a hoax on Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n Skipping\u00a0over most other topics in Facebook\u2019s year-end top 10, Sandberg then took the opportunity to discuss the\u00a0Black Lives Matter movement, which came in at #4.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s also part of what\u2019s happening with Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter has been happening for years\u2014this\u00a0<\/i>was the first year it broke into the top 10 on Facebook. And we think that\u2019s partially because the power of Live helps people bear witness. We see people connecting with the big moments, connecting with the small moments, and sharing the things that matter to them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Notably, half of Facebook\u2019s top global topics from its\u00a02016 year in review<\/a>\u00a0were political in nature:<\/p>\n Sandberg went on to announce Facebook Live\u2019s top video of the year,\u00a0Chewbacca Mom<\/a>. Fittingly, the rightful\u00a0and perhaps sole\u00a0winner of 2016 did not escape the year without her own share of political\u00a0controversy<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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