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News publishers and Facebook users are constantly complaining about old news being shared on social media as current news. This easily confuses those who are none the wiser and makes room for misunderstanding and misinformation. Facebook wants to fix this.
Old Articles on Facebook are no More
Starting today, Facebook is rolling out a feature that will warn users before they share an article over 90 days old. You’ll see the notification if you click the share button on an old article. However, it is unclear whether this will also work when you copy and paste a link.
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This does not mean you will not be able to share the post. Sometimes old news is still relevant, for instance when you are trying to prove a point. So, you can still share the piece if you’d like after clicking through the warning.
It goes without question that the timeliness of an article is one of the most important pieces of context that helps people decide what to read, trust and share.
Think of all the information you have seen today on social media. You may not have clicked on the post but whatever you even passively see could easily determine your perception of the world today.
Apart from old news warnings, Facebook is considering other types of warning labels too. This includes providing additional context about articles related to COVID-19. They will also include background info on the source of the link and a link to its COVID-19 Information Center for more reliable health information.
Facebook is not the only social media platform to try and keep everything clear, concise and up to date. Even Twitter has had its fair share in the game. Thy recently set up a feature that would warn people before sharing an article they haven’t read.
It’s quite nice to see the social media giants taking a more proactive approach to fighting disinformation on their platforms.
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