Facebook hopes tiny labels on posts will stop users confusing satire with reality

Facebook is adding further labels to posts from Pages that seem in users’ Information Feeds in a bid to scale back confusion about their origin. These labels will embrace “public official,” “fan web page,” and “satire web page.” The corporate says it’s already began testing the deployment of those labels within the US, and will step by step add them to extra posts.

Facebook hasn’t supplied any rationalization as to why it’s including these labels, however figuring out satire appears notably essential. Check out the social shares for any information articles written by well-known satirical websites like The Onion or The Babylon Bee and also you’ll discover loads of individuals taking these tales at face worth. In such a context these posts are basically a kind of misinformation, even when their creators didn’t intend this. Even excessive profile figures like former president Donald Trump have mistaken these tales for actual stories.

This isn’t the primary time the social community big has tried to make the context of posts within the Information Feed clearer. In June final 12 months it started labeling media shops that are “wholly or partially beneath the editorial management of their authorities.” Such shops want labels, argued Facebook, as a result of “they mix the affect of a media group with the strategic backing of a state, and we consider individuals ought to know if the information they learn is coming from a publication which may be beneath the affect of a authorities.”