(Facebook Photo)

The spread of fake news reports on Facebook could have a significant impact on its reputation, the social media giant warns in its newly filed Form 10-K annual report for 2016.

Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (Facebook Photo)

False news on Facebook was a major story of 2016. During the election, fake news reports often went more viral on the site than reports from reliable news sources. The 20 best-performing fake news stories during that time were shared, reacted to or commented on 8,711,000 times, according to a Buzzfeed News report.

In its annual report, Facebook said that it is battling such reports alongside problems such as hate speech.

“We have faced, currently face, and will continue to face claims relating to information that is published or made available on our products” Facebook wrote. “In particular, the nature of our business exposes us to claims related to defamation, dissemination of misinformation or news hoaxes, intellectual property rights, rights of publicity and privacy, personal injury torts, or local laws regulating hate speech or other types of content.”

The company did take some steps in 2016 to address false reports. In addition to adding a system to identify false news on the site, it also has worked to improve interactions with the media. In January, Facebook tweaked the algorithm of its trending section to only capture news from multiple, reliable media sites.

Still, the company warned that the attention generated by the spread of false reports has lead to media scrutiny, which could affect its reputation and therefore its business.

“Our brands may also be negatively affected by the actions of users that are deemed to be hostile or inappropriate to other users, by the actions of users acting under false or inauthentic identities, by the use of our products or services to disseminate information that is deemed to be misleading (or intended to manipulate opinions), by perceived or actual efforts by governments to obtain access to user information for security-related purposes, or by the use of our products or services for illicit, objectionable, or illegal ends,” the annual report said.

Despite the criticism Facebook received during the election, negative publicity didn’t appear to affect the brand’s success last year. The company this week reported an average of 1.23 billion daily active users and revenue of $27.64 billion in 2016, up from $17.83 billion the year before.

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