A few days ago we talked about an initiative Facebook to filter false news in the style of Snapchat Discover. Now as we have learned thanks to the social network news blog there is a new way for users to report false news, as well as new warnings that warn that the information they contain could not be real.

This seems to be one of the first steps that Facebook will give to Google to deal with hate speech, and in the social giant have thought it appropriate to address the problem of viral farces is a crucial issue.

To do this, they have decided to provide users with a voice without going into whether something is true or not, taking a very careful approach to the problem. They have divided their work into four areas, which for now will function as evidence. Facebook wants to learn from the results it extracts and extend those tests over time.

The four work areas of Facebook

First, from the social network they have tried to simplify the reports so that the users can identify the false news as fast as they see one. To do this they will only have to click in the upper right corner of a post, just like if they were to edit or delete it.

Another novelty is to mark news as “untested”. This way you do not mark a news item immediately as false, but a report is sent to Facebook. When that report arrives, the news is sent to an outside organization dedicated to verification testing. If it is then marked as false, it will be offered an explanation of why and a link to the check.

The third step is to change the way news is shared. According to the experience of the social network, when reading an entire article there are many less people who share it (which could mean that a story has led to misunderstandings or erroneous conclusions). From Facebook they think that introducing some form of “sharing with information” may be a good idea.

The fourth measure is already well-known by all, and happens by asphyxiating economically the pages of false news. From the social network they consider that these pages are controlled by spammers who only seek their own benefit by pretending to be legitimate news agencies. These individuals post a huge amount of farces that lead the public to visit their websites, which are usually made up of ads.

In words of Facebook …

It is important for us that the stories you see on Facebook are authentic and meaningful. We are excited about this progress, but we know there is much more to do. We will continue to work on this issue as long as it is needed until it is fixed.