Find out which of your Facebook friends are sharing fake news

2025-04-26 21:36:07admin

Annoyed by the never-ending stream of fake news on social media? You can now use Facebook's new News Feed feature to identify your friends who are sharing misleading or just plain old inaccurate news and put them back on the path of righteousness.

The feature, launched Tuesday for U.S. users, is actually an extension of an older News Feed update Facebook has been testing since October 2017.

SEE ALSO: How data scientists see the future after Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal

If the new option has rolled out for you, it should be easy to find -- as you scroll through stories in your News Feed, news stories will get a small "i" above and to the right of the headline. Tap on it, and you'll get some additional info about this article: A bit of data about the publisher, a couple of related articles, a map showing where the article has been shared and, lastly, a list of friends who have shared the article.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

This last bit of info is particularly useful if you're constantly bombarded with fake news from some of your friends. If you see the same names on those lists a lot, you might want to warn them or simply unfriend them (but please, please don't harass or shame them).

Obviously, the vice versa applies as well -- you'll be able to see which of your friends share quality content that interests you.

Facebook also said it started a new test that will let some users tap an author's name in Instant Articles to get additional information, including info from the Wikipedia page, their recent articles, and a button to follow their profile or page. This info will only be visible if the publisher has implemented author tags on their website, and will also initially only be available for a small subset of users in the U.S.

[h/t -- The Next Web]

Featured Video For You

Facebook is using facial recognition — here's how to turn it off