Facebook to offer users tips on identifying fake news

Facebook will start offering its users tips on how to detect and not share fake news stories, the company’s latest step to crack down on the problem.

“As part of our ongoing efforts, we’ve worked in consultation with First Draft, a non-profit dedicated to improving skills and standards in the reporting and sharing of information online, to roll out an educational tool to help people spot false news,” wrote Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s vice president of newsfeed, in a blog post Thursday, announcing the move.

{mosads}“We’re featuring this tool at the top of News Feed for a few days to people on Facebook in 14 countries.”

The tool will offer tips on how to investigate the source of online reports and verify them against other news sources.

Facebook has rolled out a series of reforms since the elections in November after critics said the site allowed misinformation to easily spread among users.

It has pledged to make it harder for hoax news sites to generate ad revenue on the platform and to enable users to better detect which links are from trusted news sources.