Facebook testing new feature to suppress fake news
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The popular social media platform plans to reduce politically-driven content in the near future.
No one can dispute the power of Facebook in people's lives.
The social media site, which was launched in 2004, has drastically changed the way people interact with others, making the online world a huge virtual hangout place.
But while the pros are enormous, there are also areas of concern, particularly when it comes to the amount of information being shared in the networking site.
Simply put, Facebook has become a hub where various information - both true and false - thrive and easily accessible to users.
So in a bid to counter fake news, Facebook is currently testing a new feature that will alert users that they're about to share an article without reading it.
“Starting today, we're testing a way to promote more informed sharing of news articles. If you go to share a news article link you haven't opened, we'll show a prompt encouraging you to open it and read it, before sharing it with others,” announced Facebook on Twitter.
By doing this, the social media platform hopes to stop or at least reduce the spread of false information among its users.
Starting today, we're testing a way to promote more informed sharing of news articles. If you go to share a news article link you haven't opened, we'll show a prompt encouraging you to open it and read it, before sharing it with others. pic.twitter.com/brlMnlg6Qg
-- Facebook Newsroom (@fbnewsroom) May 10, 2021
This is yet another step by Facebook to reduce political content on its platform.
“As Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook co-founder and CEO) mentioned on our recent earnings call, one common piece of feedback we hear is that people don't want political content to take over their News Feed,” product management director Aastha Gupta said in February.
“Over the next few months, we'll work to better understand peoples' varied preferences for political content and test a number of approaches based on those insights.”
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A death hoax is one of the ways people spread fake information on Facebook and other social media outlets. Here are some local celebrities who fell victim to these malicious actions:
