The architecture of information:
https://www.facebook.com/facebook/videos/10156559267856729/
Social media information environments like Facebook tend to present all news-type content in the same manner, whether it comes from a reputable source or not. This is in part what has led to the problem of fake news: it’s hard to tell what comes from where and how believable it is.
Facebook is now testing a button that will allow you to see metadata about links to articles shared in the news feed: The link’s source, how the article is being shared on Facebook, related articles about the topic, etc. This should go a long way to providing more context for the source of the story.
I wonder whether it will make any difference. As noted in a post in The Verge (where I saw this story), “the problem isn’t that people don’t know whether the source they’re reading is reliable or not; the problem is that people don’t care.” Still, it’s good to see Facebook trying structural approaches to alleviating the problem of fake news in their information environment.
