Facebook is rolling out a “related articles” section that will appear below popular stories and those that are deemed to be “fake news,” according to a report.
Shared articles that Facebook’s fact-checking partners deem to be fake news will now include links to the fact-check below the post.
“Appearing before someone reads, Related Articles will surface links to additional reporting on the same topic to provide different view points, and to truthiness reports from the fact checkers,” reported TechCrunch. “If users see drastically different angles when they compare a story to its Related Articles, they might deem it suspicious and skip it, be less likely to believe or share it, or could click through the Related Articles and make up their own mind.”
“That could reduce the spread and impact of false news without Facebook itself having to be the honesty police,” they continued. “Related Articles could also balance out some of the radical invective that can subtly polarize the populace.”
The new feature is currently being rolled out in the United States, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
“We don’t want to be and are not the arbiters of the truth. The fact checkers can give the signal of whether a story is true or false,” claimed Facebook’s “News Feed integrity product manager” Tessa Lyons. “The sooner we can get potential false new stories to fact checkers, the sooner that they can review them, and the more we reduce the number of people who are actually exposed to them.”
It is currently unknown as to which fact-checkers Facebook will be using, however it was previously reported they would be working with Politifact, Snopes, and ABC News.
Politifact, which is funded by a Clinton Foundation donor, have shared their own fake news in the past, pulling 2014 fact-check in April after it turned out to be factually incorrect.
The allegedly “neutral” organization also made 13 errors in a single Clinton Cash fact-check, and rated just over 15% of Donald Trump’s campaign claims as true, while marking 51% of Hillary Clinton’s as such, during the 2016 presidential election.
In 2013, the Weekly Standard claimed Politifact “has it out for Republicans,” pointing out that the site overwhelmingly focuses on fact-checking conservatives more than Democrats.
Last year, it was also discovered that alleged Facebook fact-checking partner Snopes employs almost solely far-left fact-checkers.
As previously reported, Snopes fact-checker Arturo R. Garcia openly labels himself as a “progressive,” attempted to compare Trump supporters to racists on Twitter, misattributed a quote about him to Breitbart News, and acts as the editor of “Racialicious” – “A blog about the intersection of race and culture”.
Fellow Snopes fact-checker Bethania Palmer attempted to link Trump to the KKK, defended a racist professor, wrote numerous left-wing articles for Raw Story — including two attempting to associate former Breitbart News executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon to domestic violence and white supremacy — and acts as a contributor for the “progressive” non-profit Truthout.
David Emery, another fact-checker and staff writer at Snopes, previously asked on Twitter whether there were “any un-angry Trump supporters.”
Despite their clear political biases, all three were tasked with fact-checking political candidates over the 2016 presidential election under the guise of a neutral service.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.
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