Facebook to rollout context button for Australian users in fight against fake news
Facebook has announced it will be rolling out its context button to help Australian users check the veracity of stories appearing in their news feeds.
The feature, which was rolled out for US and UK users of the social media platform earlier this year, shows what a publisher has previously posted, its Wikipedia page and where the post has been shared.
Facebook’s latest move comes after the company launched a campaign highlighting its fight against misleading news and misinformation earlier this year following months of criticism about its roll in spreading untruths online which saw found Mark Zuckerberg summonsed before the US Congress.
Over coming weeks Australians will see a button appearing on posts which, when clicked, will give deeper details about the publisher and will show people any of their friends who have shared the article.
“Research with our community and our academic and industry partners has identified some key information that helps people evaluate the credibility of an article and determine whether to trust the article’s source,” Facebook’s researcher wrote in a blog post at the time of the US release.
“Based on this research, we’re making it easy for people to view context about an article, including the publisher’s Wikipedia entry, related articles on the same topic, information about how many times the article has been shared on Facebook, where it is has been shared, as well as an option to follow the publisher’s page. When a publisher does not have a Wikipedia entry, we will indicate that the information is unavailable, which can also be helpful context,” the post said.
“In addition, we will share additional context by sharing ‘More From This Publisher’, which will give people a quick snapshot of the other recent stories posted by the publisher, and ‘Shared By Friends’, which will show people any of their friends who have shared the article.”
The feature is also being released in New Zealand, Canada and Ireland.
About 66% of Facebook users get their news from FB specifically, and with billions of users that’s a dangerously high number. Theres only so much tech giants like FB or the government can do to stop the spread of fake news. That’s why media literacy is so important.
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