Facebook on 14th August 2019 announced that it will include Kiswahili, among other local African languages as part of its Third Party Fact Checking programme – which helps to assess the accuracy of news on Facebook and aims to reduce the spread of misinformation.
Launched in 2018 across five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Cameroon, Facebook has partnered with Africa Check to expand its local language coverage across:
- Nigeria, in Yoruba and Igbo, adding to Hausa which was already supported
- Swahili in Kenya
- Wolof in Senegal
- Afrikaans, Zulu, Setswana, Sotho, Northern Sotho and Southern Ndebele in South Africa
Kojo Boakye, Facebook Head of Public Policy, Africa, said: “We continue to make significant investments in our efforts to fight the spread of false news on our platform, whilst building supportive, safe, informed and inclusive communities. Our third-party fact-checking programme is just one of many ways we are doing this, and with the expansion of local language coverage, this will help in further improving the quality of information people see on Facebook. We know there is still more to do, and we’re committed to this.”
About Third-Party Fact-Checking
Facebook’s fact-checking programme relies on feedback from the Facebook community, as one of many signals Facebook uses to raise potentially false stories to fact-checkers for review. Local articles will be fact-checked alongside the verification of photos and videos. If one of Facebook’s fact-checking partners identifies a story as false, Facebook will show it lower in News Feed, significantly reducing its distribution.
About The Author
Lil MwaE Techworld is a software development company in Kenya that was founded on the simple basics of coding.
We specialize in developing high quality guaranteed software solutions that maximize profitability in today’s business.
Our Business Strategy
Our solution-based approach is key to solving today’s problems for tomorrow’s prosperity. We believe that Africa and
more so Kenya faces unique problems that tabled on a global view demonstrate a state of extreme poverty and lack of
a realization of the riches from within that when properly harnessed would yield the crucial fruits of prosperity. Our
business is to harvest the riches from within by employing the use of extreme talent and brain power to develop fully
customizable technical solutions to our Africa’s unique problems. Prior to the advancement of Information Technology
(IT) such issues as instant communication, research data into advanced medicine and such were in a deplorable state ,
a thing that is now slowly improving, thanks to the latest technology.
So, who are we?
Based in Nairobi’s Westlands area, Lil MwaE Techworld is a rapidly growing tech firm that continues to offer world class
business solutions to corporate enterprises, SMEs as well as individuals. Officially registered in Kenya in the year 2017,
Lil MwaE Techworld was a confirmation of a long dream come true from our founding fathers. We specialize in developing
software programs for every unique need of a business, be it process improvement (Invoicing, Payroll, employee
management, Point Of Sale, Inventory Management, Biometrics Solutions, Order/Sales Tracking, work output tracking
and management, Cost Management and Data analysis). Other services offered by the business include, and not limited to,
Mobile App Development, ICT Consultancy (outsource IT services) , Web Design and Hosting, Branding, Graphics Design
and Advertisement, Computer Networking, Digital Marketing and CCTV Security Systems.
Our dedicated team is always on standby to offer help in the most innovative way possible.
