In the digital age, it is crucial for social media moguls to understand the impact of their websites on those who log in every day. In 2016, the leading social media website was Facebook with 1,590,000,000 users and counting. However, with great power (and membership), comes great responsibility.

Social media websites have increasingly become news aggregators, where news from many different sources are posted as links that can be read and shared. Though I don’t believe journalism was originally an intended feature of up-and-coming social media sites, it has definitely become a prominent aspect that needs to be addressed.

In 2015, Facebook launched a new feature, “Instant Article,” where media companies were, and still are, able to publish stories directly to Facebook. This comes up as a little sidebar on the right side of your screen. Recently, however, Facebook is facing a lot of heat for wrongful metrics (measurement) statements, or should I say overstatements. One of the metrics bugs found showed that the people were spending less time on “Instant Articles” than reported. What this means is that news media like The New York Times and Buzzfeed are super frustrated with all the money they have been spending on getting their content published.

Aside from these “minor” bugs, Facebook is also dealing with fake news accusations. Many people are calling out Facebook for swaying election results with news like “Pope Francis Endorses Donald Trump.” One false story about Megyn Kelly actually made it’s way to the top of Facebook’s “trending news” section. For anyone uneducated on credible news, bold headlines like this one can definitely have an impact on how someone feels about a particular candidate. Since 2013, the percent of Facebook users who get their news from the site rose from 47% to a majority of 63% in 2015. Facebook is unique in that about one-third of users will post or comment on news about government and politics. This is especially prominent for Millennials, like myself, whose first source of news may be through social media platforms. To be sure, I understand that categorizing a whole group’s news habits is unfair and not representative, but this is still an issue within today’s youth.

Now, I know there are other social media websites that aggregate news. However, from my personal experience, I did not see the same level of false news--trying to be passed off as truth--circulating on other social media sites, such as Twitter and Youtube. Facebook was also cited as the most used social media platform to learn about the election with 37% compared to the runner-up, Youtube, with 11%. From these outstanding statistics, and with all the blunders, I think it is reasonable to make Mark Zuckerberg face the music and take responsibility.

Zuckerberg is beginning to come out with a plan to stop the fake news, but he originally denied it having any effect on the election. He called it a “pretty crazy idea,” but what’s truly crazy is that Facebook allowed this type of news to get to the scope it did. While it’s impossible right now to say how much of an impact the fake news had on the outcome of the election, it is irresponsible to say that the false stories had no impact on the public's opinion of one candidate or another.

It is imperative that the news circulating is factual. I think this election was momentous in changing the meaning of “fact.” I think many people forgot that there is a distinct difference between opinion and falsity. It’s one of the first things children learn in school, to separate fact from opinion. For example, saying climate change doesn’t exist is not an opinion, it is simply false. With a presidential candidate turned president-elect who advocates untrue statements and cannot separate fact from fiction, it is important for journalists to make sure the truth is known.

As you can see, fake news makes this increasingly difficult because, with a lack of patience, people are less willing to fact check sensationalized headlines and content. I believe a lot of the blame falls on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, who should have caught this sooner. Zuckerberg needs to step up and take responsibility for everything that has occurred in the past month or so, and come out with a strong plan to fix the mistakes.

On the other hand, I want to call on citizens to be more proactive with their news gathering. If you see something you think is wrong, fact check it. We cannot allow false statements to go by because someone with apparent authority or knowledge passed them off as true. We need to be our own fact checker by getting news from credible sources. This may mean logging off Facebook and downloading a news app on your phone. Pick what you like, just make sure it’s reputable.