Facebook wants to fight fake news with facts
by Lauren C Williams at Think Progress
https://thinkprogress.org/facebook-wants-to-fight-fake-news-with-facts/
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Facebook wants to arm its users with facts. The social network announced on Thursday it will begin a broad roll out of a new feature called “Related Articles” which seeks to debunk posts that perpetuate hoaxes and conspiracy theories.
In the never-ending battle to fight fake news, Facebook has set out to give users tools to help them sift through the steady stream of links — many unverified — that come through their news feeds. In this latest update, Facebook has tweaked its algorithm to spot potential fake reports based on consumer feedback and comments on the posts. Those stories are then verified by third-party fact-checkers who will post aggregated pieces alongside the original story that give readers more context about it.
“In addition to seeing which stories are disputed by third-party fact checkers, people want more context to make informed decisions about what they read and share,” Facebook product manager Sara Su wrote in an updated news release.
Users will see links to the suspected false news story and the “related articles” at the same time so users can make “informed decisions about what they read and share,” but the company recognizes that there’s a limit to what can be done. Facebook has found that high-volume posters are more likely to share fake news, and the company has taken out newspaper ads warning voters to beware of suspicious content, and previously released a labeling tool that alerted users to questionable content. But that might not be enough.
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