In recent reports, we all know that Facebook has faced heat over the issue of fake news. Including this are the blaming for not handling the situation the way it should be handled. Now it seems the company wants users to help it by telling what, according to them, is fake, and to what extent.
Facebook Is Now Letting Users To Rate Articles Based On 'Misleading Language'
The Facebook Survey is noticed by Chris Krewson of Philadelphia’s Billy Penn, accompanied a Philadelphia Inquirer article about the firing of a well-known nut vendor for publicly espousing white nationalist views. “To what extent do you think that this link’s title uses misleading language?” asks the survey, which appears directly below the article. Response choices range from “Not at all” to “Completely,” though users can also choose to dismiss it or just scroll past.
According to TechCrunch, Facebook confirmed that this is an official effort, though it did not answer several probing questions about how it works, how the data is used and retained, and so on. The company uses surveys somewhat like this to test the general quality of the news feed, and it has used other metrics to attempt to define rules for finding click bait and fake stories.
What Is The Real Purpose Of The Survey?
As per Value Walk, all these developments follow comments from Facebook’s Eliott Schrage, who said the presidential election made the company realize that it has a “role in assessing the validity of content people share.”
Zuckerberg had acknowledged the issue of fake news on the platform, but his defensive and dismissive demeanor did not sit very well with critics. This survey, however, can be seen as an effort from Facebook to be transparent in designing its algorithms so that it can detect misleading headlines.
Veteran social media commentator John Herrmann and David Carr Fellow at The New York Times noted that Facebook’s recent survey is an indication of the company’s belief that it is not a media company, but rather, it’s a platform and a self-regulating marketplace.
