August 18, 2014

Facebook helps readers tell truth from fiction

A man walks past a logo created from pictures of Facebook users worldwide on November 7, 2013 in Lulea, Sweden
A man walks past a logo created from pictures of Facebook users worldwide on November 7, 2013 in Lulea, Sweden

Facebook said on Monday that it is testing a way to let members know when articles posted to the social network are tongue-in-cheek instead of hand-on-heart.

Evidently, users of the world's leading social network need a bit of help when it comes to discerning truth from fiction in the form of satire crafted to pushed boundaries of credulity.

Facebook told AFP they are testing a "satire" tag to go in front of links to satirical articles that pop up in news feeds at the service.

"This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units," a Facebook spokesperson said.

Website literallyunbelievable.org lists a cornucopia of seemingly serious responses at Facebook to blatantly satirical stories, including pieces from The Onion, which specializes in the fake news genre.

© 2014 AFP

Citation: Facebook helps readers tell truth from fiction (2014, August 18) retrieved 22 December 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2014-08-facebook-readers-truth-fiction.html
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