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Facebook Continues its Fight Against Fake News

President Donald Drumpf might have brought fake news to the world’s attention (albeit just to avoid a reporter’s question) it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem when it comes to factual reporting. A lot of fake news does come […]

President Donald Drumpf might have brought fake news to the world’s attention (albeit just to avoid a reporter’s question) it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem when it comes to factual reporting.

A lot of fake news does come from the internet. Some social media sites, like Facebook, have announced they’re taking steps to combat fake news.

Last year Facebook announced they would be cracking down on fake news, allowing users to flag content they believe is false.

Facebook is now taking their fight a step further. A new addition to their shared code means that users will be prevented from being able to edit and change an article’s headline, header image or description.

Facebook to fight fake news
Fighting fake news is super important. Source.

A Facebook marketing team member told Social News Desk:

“Allowing modification of link headlines and images when sharing posts has provided a potential vehicle for malicious users to misrepresent underlying link content, and hence Facebook is removing the capability.”

While it’s important to stop the spread of misinformation in order for people to be accurately informed, the update will stop publishers from being able to edit links for social media to maximize potential audiences.

The jobs of social media workers everywhere just got that much harder.

It’s an extreme measure, but it isn’t the only one. Scientists even conducted a study to see if there was such thing as a “vaccination” against fake news (note: no needles were involved).

The new feature will kick off from July 18 2017.