In the recent months, Facebook’s been dealing with a pretty major problem: news and articles from unreliable sources.
Bloggers often write articles to get attention from a wide range of people, but much of that attention is based off of information that hasn’t been vetted by reliable sources.
To counter this problem, Facebook is starting to test a new “i” button displayed along with links and articles that are shared in the news feed. By tapping the “i”, users will be able to get context on the publication itself and articles similar to the one they’re about to look at.
Information about these publications are gathered through 3rd party outlets — like Wikipedia and other public directories. Facebook also gathers information through its own data sources.
On top of that, Facebook also shows the general sentiment surrounding the article across the web.
For example, are other people agreeing with it? Disagreeing with it? Saying that it’s not true?
Facebook aims to provide users with more context and information about the articles they’re reading, so they can better decide whether the source is reputable or not.
