NicoleOnce again, Facebook is adding another major change to its Newsfeed.
Based on an article by Mashable, the online social powerhouse has brought about a new and personal way to get rid of spam, hoaxes and misleading stories on every user’s newsfeeds, and this time, the users themselves will be able to report these false posts.
“This works in the same way as reporting a story as spam… When you click to hide a story you also have the option to report the content.” Says the Facebook blog.
If Facebook senses a rather large number of users reporting a certain post, the site’s algorithms will automatically take away it’s visibility in user’s feeds. Facebook made sure to note that although they will add a message warning users that the post contains false information, they will not take down any of the posts.
Also, stories that are meant to be satirical instead of false will be differentiated and will not have its visibility reduced as it is an style of writing that has been around for decades.
While the new feature is a great way to eliminate false posts from spreading and fooling users, it is not an assurance that this feature will not be used in an abusive manner. People may report a post as a hoax simply because they hate the publication or have personal relationships with the writer or people involved in a story. So far, Facebook hasn’t given a solution for the possibility of abusing their new feature.
Mainly, it all comes down to Facebook’s efforts to make content on their site more reliable and hoax free.