Facebook started adding labels to satire pages to make sure people don’t mistake satire for, you know, real news.
While people who are Internet savvy usually know how to tell “real” news outside of satire, the truth is that many Facebook users don’t. It’s all too common to see someone share an article from The Onion or the Borowitz Report as if it was serious news.
The new labels appear below the page name as gray text.
Starting today in the US, we’re testing a way to give people more context on the pages they see. We will gradually begin to apply labels such as “official public”, “fan page” or “satire page” to posts in the Newsfeed, so that people can better understand who they are from. pic.twitter.com/Bloc3b2ycb
– Facebook press room (@fbnewsroom) April 7, 2021
But wait, there is more! The company is also rolling out “official public” and “fan page” labels for greater transparency. The new labels are based on disclaimers added for state-controlled media last year.
The labels are starting to roll out today, although Facebook notes that it is “ testing ” the feature, you may still have to deal with family members unwittingly sharing satire for a while.
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Published April 9, 2021 – 00:04 UTC