Former US President Barack Obama personally urged Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to counter the rise of fake news on the social network during a meeting held shortly after last year’ s election , the Washington Post reported Sunday.
The encounter reportedly took place on the sidelines of a meeting of global leaders in Lima, Peru on November 19 , two months before Trump ’ s inauguration and days after Zuckerberg had dismissed as “crazy ” the idea that misleading stories driven by Russian operatives had made a major impact on the outcome of the vote.
“Zuckerberg acknowledged the problem posed by fake news. But he told Obama that those messages weren’ t widespread on Facebook and that there was no easy remedy, ” the newspaper said , quoting people it said had knowledge of the exchange.
The report comes days after Facebook announced it would be handing over to Congress advertisements it discovered were bought by Russia-linked fake accounts , aimed at inflaming political tensions ahead of and following the election .
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