Facebook reportedly testing new tool to combat fake news
Summary: Facebook appears to be testing a tool designed to help it identify and hide “fake news” on the social network, in an attempt to quell increasingly vocal criticism of its role in spreading untruths. The tool, reported by at least three separate Facebook users on Twitter, asks readers to rank on a scale of one to five the extent to which they think a link’s title “uses misleading language”. The articles in question were from reliable sources: Rolling Stone magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Chortle, a news site which reports on comedy. It isn’t clear how Facebook intends to act on the data it is collecting, or whether it intends to act at all. Misleading link text is certainly a part of the fake news problem on the social network, as evidenced by the two misleading adverts that accompanied Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s 18 November post about fake news.
[] Almost 60% of social media shares come from users who never clicked the link, implying that the headline drives discussion and sharing far more than the content of an article.
My opinion: Fake news is getting out of hand, it is being increasingly important to owners of social media and audiences who get involved into fake news. Interestingly, fake news is mainly on social media where audiences themselves are interactive and active, audiences are pushing on this and making it harder for social networkers to control. But it is a bit silly of Facebook using this tool that is explained in the article above because personally, i understand how it can tackle fake news that comes in their social network sites. It could make users think twice and think about what they read but personally, I don't really think it will stop fake news to be created.
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