Weekly New/Digital Media (26)

Facebook reportedly testing new tool to combat fake news

 Facebook logos on phone and computer screen


Summary:
"Facebook users asked to rank whether a story ‘uses misleading language’, in an apparent attempt the solve the site’s problem with false stories" 
Facebook seems to be testing a tool that should help to identify and hide "fake news" content. The tool asks readers to rate on a scale to what extent the links title provides "misleading language"
However its unclear weather or not they intend to take any action based on this data they are trying to collect.

Moreover the problem is much deeper than just misleading headings but its also the actual content of those 'stories.' Ranging from completely fabricated stories to accurate headlines of that particular content. 

Key stats/quotes:
  •  Research suggests that 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: 

Its good that facebook is attempting to gather data on the stories which should counteract the misleading headings that serve the purpose of click bait and would thus prevent misleading interpretation of stories behind shared based only on their headlines and nothing else. However, it wont tackle the presence of completely fake news or Facebook may find the data too complicated to work with which would lead to no progress suggesting this may just be a slight PR stunt to indicate they care when they honestly don't. 

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