Facebook has announced that it will be rolling out a context button which launched in the UK and US earlier this year to Australian, New Zealand, Irish and Canadian users which will enable them to check the veracity of stories appearing in their news feeds.
The context button, shows both a snapshot of recent stories from the publisher, as well as a list of their friends who have shared the articles – i.e if your crazy uncle John is sharing it. There will also be information about the author of the article as well, including a link to their Wikipedia page and a list of recently published articles.
This move comes after mounting pressure on the social media giant over enabling the sharing of so-called ‘Fake News’. Earlier this year, Facebook launched a campaign highlighting its fight against misleading news, with advertising cropping up in bus shelters, shopping centres and other billboards around the world.
When the Context button was first launched in the US, the company said:
Research with our community and our academic and industry partners has identified some key information that helps people evaluate the credibility of an article and determine whether to trust the article’s source.
Based on this research, we’re making it easy for people to view context about an article, including the publisher’s Wikipedia entry, related articles on the same topic, information about how many times the article has been shared on Facebook, where it is has been shared, as well as an option to follow the publisher’s page. When a publisher does not have a Wikipedia entry, we will indicate that the information is unavailable, which can also be helpful context.
In addition, we will share additional context by sharing ‘More From This Publisher’, which will give people a quick snapshot of the other recent stories posted by the publisher, and ‘Shared By Friends’, which will show people any of their friends who have shared the article.
You can watch a video, explaining the new context feature below:
With the rollout of the Context Button, Facebook said that the feature will now also share data on the age of the website/domain, which will give people more information about the source, along with expanding coverage from just articles to all website links. The button is rolling out now, so keep an eye out for it in your news feed.
