devil21
08-17-2014, 10:22 AM
Seems innocent enough on the surface to flag articles from the Onion. It's the longer term implications of FB establishing a policy to determine what is "real news" and what is not that concerns me. We know that FB has no issue being a testbed for social engineering experiments.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-to-flag-satirical-articles-to-stop-users-falling-for-the-onions-jokes-9674483.html
Facebook is testing a new feature intended to stop users accidentally falling victim to satirical websites like the Onion, hoping that tagging articles could stop users accidentally believing joke stories.
If any of the users that are selected for the trial click through to a piece from the Onion and then go back to Facebook, the related stories that show beneath the link when users return will then feature a tag marking it out as satire.
"We are running a small test which shows the text '[Satire]' in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed,” a Facebook spokesperson told Ars Technica. “This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units."
Facebook said that the test had been happening for over a month and did not say whether the tag would be used on content from different websites, according to the statement.
more at link
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-to-flag-satirical-articles-to-stop-users-falling-for-the-onions-jokes-9674483.html
Facebook is testing a new feature intended to stop users accidentally falling victim to satirical websites like the Onion, hoping that tagging articles could stop users accidentally believing joke stories.
If any of the users that are selected for the trial click through to a piece from the Onion and then go back to Facebook, the related stories that show beneath the link when users return will then feature a tag marking it out as satire.
"We are running a small test which shows the text '[Satire]' in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed,” a Facebook spokesperson told Ars Technica. “This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units."
Facebook said that the test had been happening for over a month and did not say whether the tag would be used on content from different websites, according to the statement.
more at link