Facebook, and indeed most social media sites, have a problem with Fake News. The problem is exacerbated when it gets multiple shares as the story then appears in trending news garnering even more shares and the story continues to grow.
Now Facebook have announced that they are to scrap their Trending News section to make way for future news experiences on Facebook. Trending was only available in five countries and accounted for less than 1.5% of clicks to news publishers on average. From research Facebook found that over time people found the product to be less and less useful and frankly none of the supposedly ‘Trending’ stories have ever been of interest to me personally.
Facebook want to ensure that the ‘News’ you see on their site is from ‘trustworthy and quality sources’ so will have new ways to share news:
Breaking News Label
Facebook are running a test with 80 publishers across North America, South America, Europe, India and Australia lets publishers put a “breaking news” indicator on their posts in News Feed. They are also testing breaking news notifications.
Publishers will only be able to tag one Breaking News article per day and will have to specify a time period (low numbers of hours) before the tag times out.
Today In
Facebook are testing a dedicated section called Today In that connects people to the latest breaking and important news from local publishers in their city, as well as updates from local officials and organizations.
News Video in Watch
There will soon be a dedicated section on Facebook Watch in the US where people can view live coverage, daily news briefings and weekly deep dives that are exclusive to Watch.
8 Responses
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in my late ’60’s i’m puzzled and worried about the concern – real or faux – regarding ‘fake news’.
i grew up in the last years of a repressed censored and very censorious world – and when the penny dropped rather late in my teens i realised that the great manipulators were politicians and marketing shysters – both public and private sector.
one of the best ways to illustrate their dishonesty and excess was satire. one of its best weapons was fake news.
beware politicians when they claim that we the electorate require protection from the supposedly evil purveyors of fake news. their claim may be based on the opportunity to exert control – over anything they choose.
shouldn’t we worry more about the gullibility of the people who are taken in by the fakers? three generations of universal secondary education and they are willing mugs.
Believe nothing….
Nellie the elephant packed her trunk
and tumbled of to the jungle
of she road with a trumpety trump
trump trump trump
smart arse