New Facebook Feature Flags Fake News

Facebook is offering a new feature, one that is intended on snuffing out the hoaxes and scams that often times can be misleading. The idea would be to give users the option to choose whether or not an advertisement, picture or content in the news feed is believed to be a hoax or graphic in nature. And once it receives a certain amount of flags, it's neatly swept under the rug for few people to see.

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How's it going to work? To do this, Facebook is giving power to the people instead of hiring a dedicated team to mindlessly flag false stories all day. An option will soon appear under the light grey arrow seen on every post with the option to report a "false news story." The more people report offending stories, links and pictures, the less frequently it will appear in News Feeds. 

However, tucked away in these options to flag material as such, is the ability to flag news stories that are determined to be fake by the user, (who may not by the way have any knowledge on the subject) or if it goes against ones own personal beliefs.

I understand the need to weed out content that maybe pornographic, soliciting or just plain ignorant, but when the option is available for anyone to determine if news is worthy or if it is conspiratorial in nature, when said individual may not have any knowledge on the topic at all borders on censoring.

This kind of information control if determined has the ability to quietly shutdown alternative media and possibly anything conspiratorial in nature on Facebook. Which in turn takes away from the need to use critical thinking skills that may question an official narrative.

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You've seen them in your feed: false reports of celebrity deaths, conspiracy theories presented as real news, promises of free iPads if you share a link, quotes attributed to the Pope that he never said.

Whatever lah .. there will always be sources of alternative news .. let the mindless masses live in their little bubble on farcebook ..
Those who want to find the truth will find it regardless how much the control freaks try to manipulate it and hide it ..

originally posted by: Expat888
Whatever lah .. there will always be sources of alternative news .. let the mindless masses live in their little bubble on farcebook ..
Those who want to find the truth will find it regardless how much the control freaks try to manipulate it and hide it ..

The truth doesn't exist, even the truths you hold dear are all lies

a reply to: Expat888

I agree, however, think about how many people frequent Facebook, and use it as there only source of news and info, probably tens of millions. Weeding out news stories that aren't popular or believed to be fake or conspiratorial only leaves mainstream ideas to fill the void.

very double edged thing here. On one hand this can be a way to deny ignorance (SEEWHATIDIDTHERE?) and thatś a good thing, sometimes fake news can go too far and cause hysteria or other such problems.
But you are right in saying that it can be a form of censorship, or a way for people to further a personal agenda, radical feminists flagging cases of male rape, religious people flagging anti religious news or vice versa.

i wish there was a filter that blocked all those posts i get with the starving children of beaten up dogs in an effort to stop poverty or animal cruelty. Would be nice if there was an algorithm that recognizes those images and blocks them from being posted on my wall, while showing a reply to the poster saying "Posting this stuff might make you feel morally better, but if that's all you plan to do, that child/dog will die all the same"

a reply to: Daedal

I wonder when they will introduce an "I hate Facebook" button or tab?

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse

Feeling ya there. Due to some surprisingly unexpected bad taste of some folks I know, I blocked everyone from being able to share, plus you can set it so comments are reviewed before being posted. If I want to see that nonsense I'll go to their pages.

More and more employers are checking out their employees on FB and while the case can be made what you do in your free time is irrelevant to your work performance, why risk it? If you want to be controversial ect...go set up a website!
Or Blog.....

I can see how dedicated groups could skew news stories to take them off the public's radar, but seriously....if you are getting ALL your news from FB instead of multiple sources how bright are you really? The internet is so large it would be impossible to quash news unless alphabet agencies block things.

a reply to: Caver78

if you are getting ALL your news from FB instead of multiple sources how bright are you really?

you know, there is a "problem" with that statement.
Not saying you are wrong, but hear me out, you, me, and probably 90% of people on this site get our news from different sources, we are here because we like to "investigate" and look behind the curtains as much as we can.
but there are lots of people out there that are maybe too young or too old to know any better, and might just take that info in in good faith, so it does become a problem when used to promote censorship (and with all the butthurt people out there you can bet they will silence voices they just don't agree with)
No matter what way you slice it, it's a mess, the best we should all do is get rid of our social networks all together!

Censorship by proxy. What a concept.

I don't understand who this is supposed to be for. People choose what sites they get news from. If you subscribed to a group or a news site that is putting out questionable content, you can unfollow them and probably should reconsider your associations.

The only real use I can see for this is to allow organized groups to quash information they don't want made public.

This will be the end of FOX "News" on Facebook then. A sad day for blondes interested in going into propaganda journalism-as-entertainment.

a reply to: N3k9Ni

Who defines the word questionable, the user. So if something appears on someone's timeline or news feed, and they believe it's questionable, when in fact it may not be, they can choose to flag it.

It's a slippery slope. In the process of eliminating offensive content and solicitations, bundling options for news stories in this feature gives one the ability to flag something don't agree with, not because it is false necessarily.

So if l am a conservative or liberal, either or, if a news story shows up on my feed about the opposing party, I could just simply flag it as offensive, and with enough flags it gets swept under the rug.

IMO this feature may neatly pool people into different sectors by simply viewing what's allowed on ones page. It may also make it easier to identify which way a person leans politically simply by viewing there page, that is if they use the feature.

a reply to: Daedal

I agree with you. There's a huge potential for this to be used for nefarious purposes. If Group A doesn't like group B for whatever reason, they can flag all their posts as offensive and group B can do likewise. This could bring any and all information sharing to a screeching halt.

I can see flag wars becoming a real thing.

a reply to: Daedal

How is that any different than how people choose which 24 hour news outlet to watch? You can't stop people from viewing what they want to view. Frankly, this is a good idea. The proliferation of hoaxes and scams on Facebook has gotten out of hand (it has literally reshaped the way media is delivered to us by making it all about clicks and not about content).

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Because their choosing. Having someone else determine what I see or watch is different entirely.

a reply to: Daedal

Well take solace in the fact that a story needs to accrue a bunch of dislikes from many different people in order for it to be squashed. Though, I agree with other posters in this thread, if you are getting your news from Facebook, you are doing it wrong.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I understand that man. Just merely discussing the possibility this could have on how and what content is viewable, and if this feature is helpful or not in distributing content equally or if it's intended too squash unpopular beliefs.

a reply to: Daedal

The question you have to ask is; "How is Facebook the corporation going to monetize this feature."

It seems ripe with opportunity for corruption of humanism.

a reply to: Daedal

Any feature can be misused for a purpose it wasn't designed for. That is just the double edged sword of technology.

I bet the isreali cyber army loves this idea.

Good. Now I want an Airbrush Alert feature too. Everytime I see someone post a selfie I want an alert, because it's either airbrushed or the person only chose "the best" pic out of 90 to post. As a user I feel cheated, I want to see all the unforgiving angles, the spots the four inches of makeup can't hide.

Oh and I want to see a Trending Alert, for when they blast liberal nonsense on the trending column.

On second thought, I like reality better. No facebook.