Disinformation on Facebook: research and content moderation policies

This EU DisinfoLab factsheet, authored by Maria Giovanna Sessa, provides a technical overview of Facebook's organizational infrastructure, the investigative tools available for platform analysis, and the mechanisms for reporting content and enforcing policy. It draws together existing research on the platform's role in disinformation campaigns rather than presenting new empirical findings.

The document notes Facebook's scale — roughly 2.9 billion global monthly active users, including 259 million in the EU — and its designation as a Very Large Online Platform under the Digital Services Act, which required its first DSA transparency report to cover the period April 25 to September 30, 2023. It characterizes the platform as both a major vector for the spread of false and manipulated content and one that has invested significant effort in countering it.

The factsheet is framed as an educational resource for researchers and the counter-disinformation community, intended to help readers understand platform mechanics well enough to investigate and challenge misinformation campaigns more effectively.