Facebook Tests New Contextual 'Labels' for Posts From Popular Pages

Facebook is testing the use of Page labels as a way to give people more context about the posts that appear in their news feed, the social network has announced.

facebook test labels
Politicians' pages will be marked with the label "public official," while the labels "fan page" and "satire page" will be applied to posts from the relevant pages, with the aim of helping users to distinguish between genuine news reports from satirical stories written by the likes of The Onion.

The labels should also allow users to immediately realize when they are reading news from real authorities or more questionable sources, which could reduce confusion, mitigate the spread of fake news on the platform, and reduce avoidable flame wars in comments.

The new labels will appear below Page names on relevant posts in the news feed, and users can expand them to read more about why they are deemed necessary.

The labels are currently limited to Facebook in the U.S., and the feature has only just started being tested, so the ability to label pages accordingly and see the labels in posts may still be rolling out.

Facebook has been criticized heavily in the past for not doing enough to stop the spread of fake news. A study by researchers at Princeton University in March 2020 found that Facebook is by far the worst social media platform for spreading dubious news content, compared to Twitter and Google.

Top Rated Comments

pavvel Avatar
26 months ago
Oh Facebook please! Just do society a favour and go bust.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rp100 Avatar
26 months ago
Yet another feature where Facebook does the thinking for the user.

How should I vote? What should I care about? What should make me outraged? What will make me laugh? What does it mean to be healthy? Who shares the same ideas as me? Are people who disagree with me degenerates? Tell me I matter. Tell me I’m loved. Tell me life isn’t meaningless. Tell me what I want to hear. Tell me what I believe is true. Tell me what to think.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TonyC28 Avatar
26 months ago
Nice to see FB making an effort to stop the spread of fake news. What concerns me is Facebook has also engaged in the stopping of real news. But if you’re relying on FB for news you’re doing it wrong anyway.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
IIGS User Avatar
26 months ago
I decided to take a break from Facebook & all social media about a month and a half ago.

I don't miss it one bit. It drives my wife crazy for some reason that I'm not on it. It became a cees pool of politics, anger, one upsmanship, and people saying things they would get punched for if they said it to someone's face. And they KNOW it.

Too many people get fired or loose relationships over misunderstandings that result from the social media circus.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
qoop Avatar
26 months ago
I'm not a member of their religious cult.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
definitive Avatar
26 months ago
looks like youtube, twitter, and facebook are getting into the business of telling people how to think and act. all these definitions, fact-checks, and notes.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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