Facebook is following through on CEO Mark Zuckerbergâs pledge to fight fake news, rolling out a tool that notifies users when content is of questionable veracity.
The new feature was first reported by users trying to share a story from the Newport Buzz about a supposed Irish slave trade.
When users attempted to post a link to the story, a message would flash up under the link which alerted them to the fact that the story is âdisputed by Snopes.com and Associated Pressâ â Snopes is a website famous for debunking false stories.
If users ignore this alert, a further pop-up will appear, re-emphasising the fact that multiple sources say it could be inaccurate. Users can dismiss this and post the link regardless, but it will appear on other usersâ timelines with a tag indicating its âdisputedâ status.
When the Guardian tried the new feature in its San Francisco office it worked, but its London and Sydney offices had no such luck, indicating that the company is initially rolling it out in select areas as part of a trial programme.
The 2016 presidential elections threw a spotlight onto the issue of âfake newsâ â heavily biased or outright fabricated stories, written with a sensationalist slant in order to garner as many social shares as possible.
Experts have said that many voters will accept these stories as true â regardless of how legitimate the source is â and warn that they could prove a threat to intelligent political discourse.
Late last year, the company announced that it would be working to identify these stories to users, with the help of five independent fact-checking organisations: Snopes, Politifact, FactCheck.org, the Associated Press and ABC News.