Facebook has revealed that it is working at implementing a feature that allows people to report hoax stories in their news feed. Expectations were high regarding the Facebook hoax stories as many people believed that Facebook would completely remove those type of stories. Apparently, that will not be the case, Facebook will just create a feature that allows people to report hoax stories in the news feed and warning people about the false content of the stories.
The feature aims at reducing the numbers of hoax and fake stories that Facebook users see on a daily basis. The social media giant assures Facebook users that the satire posts will not be affected by this change.
Facebook released the information about the feature that allows people to report hoax stories in the news feed on its blog. The decision was prompted by feedback from users who said that they wanted to see less misleading news or hoax stories in their news feed.
Facebook is slowly rolling out the option to report hoax stories in the news feed as false. It works the same way span reporting works: click the right top arrow of the post and choose report the content. Facebook said that scam and hoax stories are reported two and half more times than other posts in the news feed.
How is Facebook planning to reduce the number of hoax stories? Well, it will take into account the number of times users flag a post as being fake and also the number of times users choose to delete a certain post. As a result, a post that has a link to an article that many people reported as being a hoax or deleted will get less distribution in the news feed.
While Facebook will not delete the post completely, it will offer a warning message to users of the false content of the post. Satire lovers shouldn’t worry, because satire stories will not be affected by the decision. Facebook revealed:
We’ve found from testing that people tend not to report satirical content intended to be humorous, or content that is clearly labeled as satire,” Facebook said. “This type of content should not be affected by this update.
Facebook also revealed that people who frequently distribute hoax stories will get less distribution.
Image Source: ABC News
