YES, BUT WILL THEY ALSO HIRE A FACT CHECKER?

Facebook says it is investing $100M to support news reporting during the coronavirus pandemic.

The social media giant is putting up a $25M emergency relief fund for local news through its Facebook Journalism Project, and is placing a further $75M in additional marketing spend with news organizations around the world.

Campbell Brown, the company’s VP Global News Partnerships, announced the news in an online post.

“Through the COVID-19 Community Network grant program, direct funding is helping journalists cover important stories when we all need them most,” she wrote. “We’re building on this work and will direct a portion of these funds to publishers most in need in the hardest hit countries.”

The first round of grants will go to 50 local newsrooms across the U.S. and Canada.

This is nice to hear, but honestly, we’d feel a lot better about the whole thing is Facebook would finally come clean about its loosey-goosey attitude toward dozens of suspect posters, set up some standards and then hire someone to enforce them.

For instance, Facebook continues to have no problem with a posting by “The Federalist” a right-wing website, that even Twitter blocked.

In that posting, “The Federalist” promoted an article suggesting that the medical community should consider intentionally infecting people with the coronavirus at “chickenpox parties” to help slow the spread of the virus.

The article, titled “How Medical ‘Chickenpox Parties’ Could Turn The Tide Of The Wuhan Virus,” argued that a “controlled voluntary infection” program could allow young people to return to work after contracting and recovering from the virus.”

It continues to pop up on Facebook, which appears to have no problem with advocating the intentional infecting of people with a deadly virus we still are learning about.