Thread: Facebook Adding 'Satire' Tags to Fake News

Facebook Adding 'Satire' Tags to Fake News

• BY STEPHANIE MLOT
• AUGUST 18, 2014 10:05AM EST

Don't get duped: Facebook has added "satire" badges to links that appear in the "related articles" box.

Facebook appears to be testing a new feature that clearly marks sarcastic news stories from sites like The Onion with a "satire" tag, lest users confuse headlines like "Busch Gardens Unveils New 9,600-Mile-Long Endurance Coaster" with a serious article.

Ars Technica first noticed the addition, which shows up only in the "related articles" box that appears once you've clicked a friend's link.

For instance, once you've checked out an Onion story shared by a friend and returned to Facebook, you'll see a list of "related articles" below, typically with at least one essay from the same site. Only now, some users may see the word "satire" in brackets ahead of the headline.

Ars managed to duplicate the result on three different computers, using three different Facebook accounts. PCMag found the same result (pictured) when tested.



Facebook did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment, but a spokesman confirmed to Ars that a "small test," based on user feedback, showed "that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these [related links] units."

According to the tech news site, the test has been running for more than a month, though Facebook declined to share which links, other than The Onion, use the same tags.

Still, original satirical articles posted to the news feed will not be marked as satire. Plus, once the article is saved to a read-it-later list the tag disappears, and it doesn't show up for other sites, like The Onion's new sister site, Clickhole.

Perhaps the social network is attempting to atone for its 2012 "emotional contagion" experiment, which intentionally manipulated users' emotions to test how a virtual environment affects moods.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2463108,00.asp

Could Facebook's 'Satire' Tag Boost Web Transparency?

The social network tries to protect users from being misled by pranks and fake news.




Facebook is testing a feature that flags stories from sites like The Onion as satire.

By Tom RisenAug. 18, 2014 | 5:45 p.m. EDT+ More

Facebook is testing a new feature to warn people about parody headlines that might fool them into believing fake news, which could inspire other Web services to find ways to filter spoof content from real stories.

Fake news sites have in the past fooled real outlets like The Washington Post and China's state newspaper into writing their own reports citing the satirical headlines as real.

[OPINION: Republican Fake News Sites Lack The Onion's Humor, Ethics]

“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,” Facebook spokeswoman Jessie Baker tells U.S. News in an email.

“This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units.”

The satire tag will not be that effective since it only appears in front of related articles in a person's news feed, not in front of the top, main link to a story that's posted. It is unclear how many satirical websites, such as The Onion, are tagged using the feature.

Still, it may keep some people from getting "owned" or "rickrolled" – terms that describe being tricked after clicking on fake headlines that make people believe a dramatic news event happened or a canceled TV show was renewed.

“The satire tag that Facebook is testing is an acknowledgment that not all content is created equal, and by bringing attention to some content as ‘non-serious,’ that will help users understand better what they are viewing,” says Brian Blau, a research director who focuses on consumer technologies for research firm Gartner.

A satire tag could be particularly helpful for those using Facebook on mobile phones, says Danielle Levitas, general manager of mobility and consumer research at market research firm International Data Corporation.

“When you are away from a desktop, you are paying even less attention to what you are scrolling through,” Levitas says.

[READ: Facebook Study Highlights the Future of Advertising]

Facebook is not the only place where customers can be misled by content that is satirical or promoted. News outlets like Forbes have added links to “sponsored content” written by businesses as a new way to make money, but the Federal Trade Commission has been researching ways for websites to help customers tell the difference between the advertiser’s articles and editorial content.

Filtering satirical or advertised content from actual news stories is important for consumers because readers approach news sites with “some expectation of impartiality,” Levitas says.

“In the content of Facebook, you sort of opt in,” she says of the wide range of stories shared by users on the free social network. “I don’t put Facebook at the same standard that I hold a news publication.”

Facebook has to meet high expectations of transparency and reliability from its more than 1 billion monthly active users, but it’s unclear whether that will inspire a broader effort to make Web content more transparent – or whether that would ruin the fun of online jokes.

“I do like the idea of content tags as long as they are used responsibly and they don’t overtake the meaning of the content by redefining what the author had originally intended,” Blau says.
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FTChttp://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/08/18/could-facebooks-satire-tag-boost-web-transparency?google_editors_picks=true

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