Think again before sharing an article on Facebook
Facebook is hoping to cut the spread of misinformation and fake news on its platform, by prompting users to read a news story before they share it.
“Starting today, we’re testing a way to promote more informed sharing of news articles. If you go to share a news article link you haven’t opened, we’ll show a prompt encouraging you to open it and read it, before sharing it with others,” Facebook said in an announcement.
Τhe prompts will alert people that they’re about to share a link they haven’t opened, briefly explaining the potential issues with this move. Facebook hopes that this way they will get more people to reconsider sharing links without reading their content, which could help reduce misinformation among its users.
Facebook’s move is the latest example of social media companies trying to slow the wide spread of misinformation and harmful content on their platforms.
Twitter started testing a similar feature last June and rolled it out to all its users more broadly in September. It also announced recently that they have been testing prompts encouraging people to pause and reconsider a potentially harmful or offensive reply before tweeting it.
It’s no surprise that social media platforms are trying to maximize informed engagement and ensure that the information people see is correct, since they have become a critical news source over the last years.
According to the latest data from Pew Research, which incorporates responses from more than 9,200 Americans, around 71% of people now get at least some of their news input from social media platforms.
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