If you spend a few hours of your everyday life on Facebook, like everyone else, then I am sure you must be aware of all the fake viral stories making their way to your newsfeed. Well, this is going to be fixed by Facebook. Finally.
In last 2 or 3 years, the number of viral sites has erupted on the internet and have kind of hijacked the newsfeed of people, thanks to the Clickbait headlines.
Social Media is the best place to spread a rumour, because of the virality factor. You just need a fake news website with a fake design and people believe and share it further. It slowly forms a chain of shares and likes, no one bothers to cross chek the information. Because nobody ain’t got no time for that. Right?
So, Facebook is actually going to put some kind of badge on the shared stories that are fake that will say that the story is disputed.
In order for it to be a disputed story, several people will have to report it, and it will be then reviewed by a third party agency, that will cross check the facts.
People will still be able to read or share it further, but the Facebook Algorithm will not let it appear in the Newsfeed so strongly.
Facebook Shared their entire statement on their newsroom blog, and Mark Zuckerberg also published a Facebook Post.
I am assuming those funny/shocking cat videos would still pop up in my newsfeed every now and then, but more serious political stories favouring a particular party, won’t be the point of discussions that I see regularly appearing these days.
And yes, I hope this to be rolled out to many other countries and not just the US, because it’s a problem everywhere.
