Warning from Facebook: Read the news first, then share
You cannot share a piece of information from Facebook without reading it first; you might get a warning.
FollowFacebook has rolled out a feature, and from Monday, it started to test by prompting users to click and read a piece of information first before sharing it to the platform directly. Twitter has already done it since last year. Now, Facebook has also started.
This proves that social media platforms are thinking of ways to stop spreading fake news and misinformation everywhere, which can be seen at a high rate since the second wave of COVID-19. Social media researchers hope that these kinds of features will slow down the spread of misinformation.
But as these features are new, we don't know how much it will work. Facebook took to its Twitter account and shared that they are testing how to promote more informed news articles. The post reads, "Starting today, we're testing a way to promote more informed sharing of news articles. If you go to share a news article link you haven't opened, we'll show a prompt encouraging you to open it and read it, before sharing it with others."
If you open a link without reading, Facebook will show a text, "You're about to share this article without opening it. Sharing articles without reading them may mean missing key facts." Though the company hasn't mentioned what per cent of people will get the feature.
Social media can be a boon and can harmful as well. The nature of social media platforms depends on how you are using them. Last week Twitter revamped and rolled out another feature about tweeting; they will prompt people when "offensive or hurtful language" will be used.
