Facebook Will Warn You Before You Post Old News, Which Is Not Always OK, Boomers
Image via Facebook
People tend to overlook the published date of an article and interpret the information as current news. This seemingly small mistake can be problematic, as the context may differ in the current climate.
Therefore, Facebook will soon roll out a new app feature to inform users if an article is over 90 days old before they decide to share it on their feed. This will allow users to be aware of the post’s recency before mistakenly conveying it to others on the platform.
Once the new popup appears to inform users about a possibly outdated news piece, account owners can choose to continue or cancel the post.
According to a new blog post by Facebook’s vice president of feed and stories John Hegeman, “Timeliness of an article is an important piece of context that helps people decide what to read, trust and share.”
In the post, Hegeman acknowledged that older stories can manipulate perceptions about recent events. He hopes the feature will help users make “informed decisions about what to share on Facebook.”
Facebook has faced backlash for allowing misinformation on its feed for a long time. In April 2020, Politico reported that about 40-percent of COVID-19-related statements on Facebook were debunked by fact-checkers, but were still available on its platform. A study published on Nature.com found that Facebook spreads misinformation faster compared to other social media platforms.
[via Gizmodo, cover image via Facebook]
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