Facebook has begun flagging fake news.
USA Today reports the social network is slapping a warning label on articles that clearly have no basis in fact or reality—at least some of them.
Facebook first promised to roll out a “disputed” tag in December. Over the weekend, it made its debut in the U.S. Facebook declined to comment.
Among the disputed offenders that people spotted on Facebook: A fictionalized story titled “Trump’s Android Device Believed To Be Source of Recent White House Leaks,” from a fictional publication “The Seattle Tribune.”
The story carried a disputed label with links to fact-checking services that explained why it was not true. The website has a disclaimer that it is a “news and entertainment satire web publication.” But the story fooled people anyway.
The “disputed” tag is part of Facebook’s grand plan to crack down on fake news as the company tries to tamp down the controversy over its role in the spread of misinformation that sharpened political divisions and inflamed discourse during and after the presidential election.
“They’re gonna run out of flags,” one Facebook user jokes.
“Guarantee the people who share fake news all the time will use this to say they are being censored, or that Facebook is forcing liberal bias down their throats, or whatever,” commented another. “I expect it to strengthen their resolve not make them see their bias for what it is.”
Facebook has been reluctant to put itself in the position of judging what content is misleading, resisting calls that it has become a de facto news publisher, exercising editorial judgment with the power to sway the minds of billions.
