Learn to distinguish fake news thanks to a Facebook manual

Facebook wants you to stop sharing fake news. So clear and direct. And not only Facebook is interested, but the common good. We live in an era where we have tremendous power at the click of a button. A power that even the media did not have just two decades ago. Sharing a piece of news, in a second, to hundreds of people, and these, in turn, to another hundred, and so on until thousands have read it, is a clear sign of the times.

How to know if news is false?

In future updates, and as a new measure against rumors, slander and false news, Facebook will include a guide on our wall to detect this type of harmful information material. This 'manual' will appear on top of our news feed, just as it happens when there is some important news or a special party.

According to the Facebook blog, this guide will soon appear in user accounts of the social network in up to 14 countries around the world, although it does not specify which ones. This guide has been designed together with a non-profit organization, specialized in managing online information called First Draft. In it, the reader is invited to think critically about the article, make sure it is signed and by whom, as well as the source from which it was taken.

Thanks to this guide, Facebook will try to make users take news sharing a little more seriously. A gesture that we believe to be innocent, but that can invite the spread of beliefs and facts that, even if they are later denied, do tremendous damage It is everyone's responsibility to keep our wall clean of false or old news that create confusion. That is why this guide comes to cover a necessary gap. We just hope that users take it into account and get to work.