Facebook Will Now Ask Users for Input on Trustworthiness of News Sources

Facebook is doing its part to combat fake news.

The social media platform announced that they are going to start separating its news sources by how “trustworthy” its users think they are. This is a major advancement as they continue to come under fire over the spread of misinformation.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday, via Facebook post, that it is reshaping the method for selecting news to show in its News Feed to prioritise three factors: Whether the news is considered “trustworthy,” whether it is “informative,” and whether it is relevant to user’s local community.

“The hard question we’ve struggled with is how to decide what news sources are broadly trusted in a world with so much division. We could try to make that decision ourselves, but that’s not something we’re comfortable with,” the Facebook chairman said. “We considered asking outside experts, which would take the decision out of our hands but would likely not solve the objectivity problem. Or we could ask you — the community — and have your feedback determine the ranking”

Zuckerberg continued with, “We decided that having the community determine which sources are broadly trusted would be most objective.”

These changes will not affect the news users see, but rather the quality to provide “trusted sources.”

[image via Shutterstock.com]

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