Facebook Tests Related Articles Fact-Checking Update in Ongoing Quest to Combat Fake News

Tuesday April 25, 2017 9:01 AM PDT by Mitchel Broussard
Facebook product manager Sara Su today shared a blog post that highlights a test launching on the company's iOS and Android apps, consisting of an update to the "Related Articles" feature found beneath posts shared by your friends and family.

For users included in the update, Related Articles will now highlight differing perspectives from separate publications on the same subject mentioned in the parent article, namely "including articles by third-party fact-checkers."

This marks Facebook's newest leg in its anti-"Fake News" quest, which it began earlier in April by educating its users on the subject with a "tips for spotting false news" gateway that sat atop the Facebook app for a few days. With today's launch of the Related Articles test, Su mentioned that Facebook users will now have more tools at their disposal to see a "complete picture of a story or topic" before they even click on the original story.

One of our main goals is to support an informed community on Facebook. This includes helping people have conversations about the news and giving people more ways to see a more complete picture of a story or topic.

Today, we’re beginning to test Related Articles that might appear before you read an article shared in News Feed. These additional articles, which appear for topics many people are talking about on Facebook, will appear in a unit below the link. That should provide people easier access to additional perspectives and information, including articles by third-party fact-checkers.
The Related Articles test is "one of many tests" that Facebook is working on to improve the service's reputation with rampant fake news sharing, an issue that has been on the rise since before the U.S. presidential election last year. When Facebook launched the educational tool for spotting false news, Google also debuted a "Fact Check" label in search results for all countries.

The problem reached such heights earlier this year that Apple CEO Tim Cook called it "one of today's chief problems," while Eddy Cue said that Apple itself is "trying to do some things in Apple News" that would address fake news directly.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Facebook
76 comments


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ibookg409
29 months ago
This sounds like a great way for big brother and big corporations to control what you hear and see.
Rating: 29 Votes
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6836838
29 months ago
Will they be removing the CNN page?
Rating: 24 Votes
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TonyC28
29 months ago
Seems like we'd be so much better off educating people about how news works. Lesson 1: just because your buddy on Facebook shared an article doesn't mean it's good information.
Rating: 22 Votes
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one more
29 months ago
And who is checking the facts?
Rating: 21 Votes
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Mac32
29 months ago
Independent new media telling real stories about the attacks on the sovereignty of Western nation states, and the threat to Western culture and society from open borders and mass immigration from Africa and the Middle East (particularly the Muslim Arab world) = "fake news"

That's the real issue here, right? That, and the new independent media becoming too powerful, thus threatening the narrative and power of the left-leaning mainstream media.

Remember the news reports about "PewDiePie is a Nazi", "Don't vote for Trump because...Putin", "Don't vote for Le Pen because...Putin", "Brexit is racist" etc.?

If you really want a discussion about "fake news", then take a good look at the propagandist partisan mainstream media.
Rating: 19 Votes
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ibookg409
29 months ago

Independent media telling real stories about the attacks on the sovereignty of Western nation states, and the threat to Western culture and society from open borders and mass immigration from Africa and the Middle East (particularly the Muslim Arab world) = "fake news"

That's the real issue here, right? That, and new media becoming to powerful and threatening the narrative and power of the left-leaning mainstream media.

Remember the news reports about "PreDiePie is a Nazi", "Don't vote for Trump because...Putin", "Don't vote for Le Pen because...Putin", "Brexit is racist" etc.?

If you really want to discuss "fake news", then take a good look at the propagandist partisan mainstream media.

Bingo. Facebook has removed many many posts and links about muslim terrorism/violence. It's only going to get worse.
Rating: 16 Votes
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wizard
29 months ago
Anybody with a bit of intelligence or life experience, should be absolutely horrified by this blatant censorship. The end result will be a dictatorship of some form. History is pretty clear on this, once the mechanisms are in place they will not be used for good. Time to wake up people.
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But Brexit clearly was a racist vote by the poor educated elderly and disenfranchised working class voters. No question of that.

The only fake news there was the propaganda by the right wing media screaming for Brexit to the brain washed morons who read it and didn't question it. The only thing I have not yet worked it is what do these people calling for Brexit hope to gain? Money? From what? Britains economy is sinking faster than a Pearl Harbour battleship.


That is the most asinine thing ive seen
Rating: 12 Votes
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Mac32
29 months ago

Bingo. Facebook has removed many many posts and links about muslim terrorism/violence. It's only going to get worse.


Yep, it's basically a culture war between globalism and nationalism, and the fake news-narrative is propaganda from the globalist/traditional power elites (who to a large extent control most of the mainstream media through various mechanisms). Yes, there are fake news stories out there, but strangely enough nobody cared that much about them until Donald Trump won and the conservative populist movement in USA and Europe started to gather momentum.
Rating: 11 Votes
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ibookg409
29 months ago

As opposed to before when no fabrications and misinformation made it to the mass media?
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Didn't that idiotic pizzagate shooter use the same excuse to "do his own investigation?"

People should read the news and determine for themselves if something is legitimate or not. It's called discernment and it comes from living in the real world, not from a sheltered world where you get to play with puppies when Trump is elected and start fires when someone with whom you disagree gives a speech.
Rating: 9 Votes
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Sven11
29 months ago
Facebook is the Joseph Goebbels of the internet.
Rating: 9 Votes
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