Facebook is rolling out a new notification to warn users if they are about to share an article that is older than 90 days, in order to prevent the spread of outdated news.
A notification will pop up when users click the share button on old articles, so they can decide if the article is still relevant to them.
The social media giant says that when older stories are shared on social media as current news, it can misconstrue the state of current events. Facebook outlined in a blog post that its goal with this feature is to make it easier for people to identify timely and reliable content.
Facebook notes that some news publishers are already starting to label older articles to prevent outdated news from being used in misleading ways.
The platform’s new feature will likely be helpful when it comes to sharing articles about COVID-19. Since much about the virus was unknown at the start of the pandemic and some facts have since been disproved, some old articles containing outdated information may still be circulating on social media.
Further, Facebook says it’s testing more uses of notification screens over the next few months. It’s exploring the use of a similar notification screen on posts with links mentioning COVID-19 that would provide information about the source of the link.
Facebook says it’s important to provide more context about the content that is being widely shared on its platform.
Image credit: Facebook
Source: Facebook
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