Facebook Asks Users To Rate Misleading Headlines

Find out about Facebook's latest effort in combatting fake news, and how the site is asking users to weigh in on potentially false or misleading headlines.
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Facebook is seemingly acting on its promise to crack down on fake news, with a survey that asks users to weigh in on headlines.

One user, Chris Krewson, saw the effort in action in his own newsfeed. Krewson posted a screenshot on Twitter of a Philadelphia Inquirer article shared on the social media site, with a “Facebook Survey” below asking, “To what extent do you think that this link’s title uses misleading language?” Krewson could answer “Not at all,” Slightly,” “Somewhat,” “Very much,” or “Completely,” or just not answer at all.

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In the past few weeks, the term “fake news” has been dominating the real news, largely because of its potential role in getting Donald Trump elected President. It’s become an internet epidemic of sorts, with a frightening number of users taking fake news stories at face value — sometimes to a dangerous level.

The good thing? Lots of people are committed to getting rid of — or at least cutting down on — fake news. In the wake of the election, we’ve seen Google search updates, a Chrome browser extension, and even a tool built by college students come to fruition, all to aid in this goal. And, of course, Facebook — which is an easy platform for fake news, is playing a part.

Though Mark Zuckerberg denied that fake news on Facebook influenced the election, he did recently announce a series of efforts to crack down on it, including making it easier for users to report false stories. The site confirmed to TechCrunch that the survey Krewson saw was part of an official effort, but didn’t provide any more information as to how exactly they’re using the data from these surveys to cut down on fake news. As TechCrunch pointed out, while these surveys may help Facebook develop algorithms to detect false news or headlines, they might not be that helpful, considering they’re asking some of the same users who are responsible for sharing fake news to begin with, to weigh in. Then again, Facebook might be using the surveys not to find fake news, but to see how well users can differentiate between real and fake news.

Either way, though, at least something is being done, and hopefully it’ll help lead to a solution sooner rather than later.

Related: Man Opens Fire in DC Pizza Parlor Due to Fake News on Facebook
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/facebook-surveys-users-fake-news-crackdown
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