In its fight against fake news, Facebook has announced that it will be introducing curated content via the Collections feature. Supplementing Collections, Facebook will also be asking its userbase to help in its crusade in the form of a survey system that shows up alongside news reports.
Facebook is asking whether this @PhillyInquirer headline is fake? pic.twitter.com/cCUpwtvQlS
— Chris Krewson (@ckrewson) December 5, 2016
This system was first spotted by Chris Krewson of a Philadelphia news portal called Billy Penn. The screenshot provided by Krewson shows the survey system in question, asking users if they believe that the title in the link associated with it uses misleading language. Users will be given the option to choose between five options, ranging from ‘not at all’ to ‘completely’ depending on what they believe.
Facebook has since confirmed with TechCrunch that this survey system is an official effort by the company to combat fake news. However, the company kept silent over how the system works behind the scenes. The decision to let the public vote on whether or not the news story is misleading may seem noble at first, but considering the fact that fake news are almost always propogated by the public in the first place, it remains to be seen how effective this system would be. Nevertheless, Facebook’s recent actions have shown that the company is taking a proactive effort in combating fake news. Let’s just hope that the efforts are serious and not just mere lip-service.
Source: TechCrunch
