Social networking giant Facebook is not ready to drop its tame the fake news mission anytime soon. The Mark Zuckerberg-led company is currently testing out a new ‘Context’ button that will allow its more than 2 billion users get a little more context about the source of the news that they’re reading on the platform.
The context button is the latest step taken by Facebook in curbing misinformation on its leading social networking platform. Earlier in the year, we reported how Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook finally launched its much-awaited 'disputed' tag to fight 'fake news' on its famous social networking site.
With the context button, Facebook users reading news on the platform will be able to get context on the source of a news article with just a single click without having to leave Facebook and their news feed.
"We are testing a button that people can tap to easily access additional information without needing to go elsewhere," revealed product managers Andrew Anker, Sara Su and Jeff Smith in a company blogpost on Thursday.
The blogpost further revealed that additional contextual information about a news piece will be gathered from across Facebook and other sources, such as information from the publisher's Wikipedia entry. In cases where information is unavailable, the social networking company "will let people know, which can also be helpful context.”
Facebook is hoping that providing more contextual information will help users in evaluating if articles are from a publisher they can trust, and if the story itself is credible or not.
Facebook finally decided to launch a crackdown on fake news stories this year in the light of the massive backlash it received in November last year that the so-called fake news on the platform had influenced the outcome of the US presidential election. In December, Facebook decided to do some damage control by announcing that it has joined hands with fact checkers that are signatories of the journalism non-profit Poynter’s International Fact Checking Code of Principles and included ABC News, FactCheck.org,Snopes and Politifact.
[Image:]
The context button is the latest step taken by Facebook in curbing misinformation on its leading social networking platform. Earlier in the year, we reported how Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook finally launched its much-awaited 'disputed' tag to fight 'fake news' on its famous social networking site.
With the context button, Facebook users reading news on the platform will be able to get context on the source of a news article with just a single click without having to leave Facebook and their news feed.
"We are testing a button that people can tap to easily access additional information without needing to go elsewhere," revealed product managers Andrew Anker, Sara Su and Jeff Smith in a company blogpost on Thursday.
The blogpost further revealed that additional contextual information about a news piece will be gathered from across Facebook and other sources, such as information from the publisher's Wikipedia entry. In cases where information is unavailable, the social networking company "will let people know, which can also be helpful context.”
Facebook is hoping that providing more contextual information will help users in evaluating if articles are from a publisher they can trust, and if the story itself is credible or not.
Facebook finally decided to launch a crackdown on fake news stories this year in the light of the massive backlash it received in November last year that the so-called fake news on the platform had influenced the outcome of the US presidential election. In December, Facebook decided to do some damage control by announcing that it has joined hands with fact checkers that are signatories of the journalism non-profit Poynter’s International Fact Checking Code of Principles and included ABC News, FactCheck.org,Snopes and Politifact.
[Image:]
Advertisements