Facebook will now encourage users to read articles before sharing

We do not support fake news in this household, and Facebook understands where we’re coming from. The tech giant announced via Twitter that it’s now testing a new prompt that encourages its users to read an article before sharing it on their feed. The feature will be available to six percent of the platform’s Android users worldwide

Impulsive headline readers will see a prompt that says, “You’re about to share this article without opening it.” There is also a notice below that states, “Sharing articles without reading them may mean missing key facts.” The feature will then allow users to either open the article or proceed with sharing 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. pic.twitter.com/brlMnlg6Qg

— Facebook Newsroom (@fbnewsroom) May 10, 2021

 

For the longest time, critics have called the attention of Facebook for the spread of fake news on their platform. Most recently, Facebook has made a move to ban Holocaust denial and distortion content. Locally, supporters of the Duterte administration have been accused of spreading inaccurate stories on the platform.

If Facebook’s new feature sounds like something you’ve heard before, Twitter also tested out a similar prompt in June 2020. Theirs was to encourage users to read for retweeting. Today, critics consider it a success since it led more people to open articles, and in some cases, they chose not to retweet the post at all.

The post <b>Facebook will now encourage users to read articles before sharing</b> appeared first on WE THE PVBLIC.

Source: we the pvblic