Facebook is releasing a new feature to combat fake news that will
allow users to report content as fake – but it’s the people behind the
ministry of truth that’s worrying.
Facebook began testing these “features” in December according to Mashable. Facebook users can now mark a story in their newsfeed as fake.
This
will result in a story having a disputed by “Fact-checkers” popup under
its title along with a link to a corresponding article explaining why
it might be false, as seen by a Gizmodo reporter on Twitter.
These
posts will then appear lower in the news feed, throttled by Facebook’s
algorithm, and users will receive a warning before sharing the story on
their Facebook feeds, RT reported.
Although, the Seattle Tribune isn’t an alternative media source and is indeed a satire site as noted by their own disclaimer policy this could have dangerous repercussions for alternative media.
