Facebook Is Asking Users' Help to Identify Misleading News It's actually trusting users to verify stories posted on the social network.
By Mariella Moon •
This story originally appeared on Engadget
The latest addition to Facebook's never-ending parade of experimental features looks like it's all about fake news.
Chris Krewson, an editor for Philadelphia publication Billy Penn, has spotted a survey module right underneath a post by the Philadelphia Inquirer about a white nationalist (and well-known pistachio vendor) losing her job. The survey asked: "To what extent do you think that this link's title uses misleading language?" There were five choices to choose from ("Not at all," "Slightly," "Somewhat," "Very much" and "Completely"), but the module could clearly be dismissed with by clicking on an "X" button.
In late November, Mark Zuckerberg explained what Facebook is doing to get rid of fake news, including improving its algorithm's ability to detect and making it easy to report them. He didn't mention that the company will start asking for people's input -- as TechCrunch said, it's a bit odd, since it's the users who are flooding the social network with fake news to begin with. Facebook confirmed to TC that it's indeed testing the feature, but it didn't elaborate on its plans beyond that.
Facebook is asking whether this @PhillyInquirer headline is fake? pic.twitter.com/cCUpwtvQlS
— Chris Krewson (@ckrewson) December 5, 2016
