As Facebook’s credibility and its ability to be a more filtered source of news continue to be questioned, the company is now reportedly eyeing Indian regional content startups to build some trust over its platform. And to do that, Facebook is in early investment talks with regional content startups, reports Mint.
The Mint report cites a source privy to the talks, who states, “Over the last one month, Facebook has started meeting content startups—vertical content and news. This is the first time Facebook is meeting content startups for investments. They met a few earlier in the month and some more later this month”. To channelize these investments, Facebook is also working on devising a possible investment structure.
A facebook spokesperson, in response to the above investment report, said that “Facebook works with the entire content ecosystem in the country, including a wide variety of partners from movie studios, to TV networks and publishers to celebrities and creators and from large organizations to startups”.
The downright cause for Facebook even thinking about such media investments, is to have a more credible stream of genuine news coming in to the platform. The company has been under massive scrutiny ever since the Cambridge Analytica incident became an highlight. Governments in the west have been putting Zuckerberg and his team on stands time and again, as they look to tighten regulations around how the platform operates. The Indian Government too has been holding meetings and issuing warnings to social media platform over alleged spread of fake news, which has even resulted in incidents of lynching and violence.
A more recent case has been of the horrific shootings that happened in New Zealand. One of the shooter used Facebook to live stream the entire incident, posing severe questions over the company’s ability to stop such misuse from happening.
