Facebook adds to “Related Articles” feature to crack down on fake news

Facebook continues to take fresh steps to combat false information across its app. The social network announced yesterday that it was broadly rolling out and improving its ''Related Articles'' feature to reduce the impact of false and misleading stories in peoples' news feeds.

With machine learning technology, Facebook said it was now possible to identify a higher volume of potential hoaxes on the social network and direct them faster to a group of third-party fact checkers.

Even as checkers reviewed a story, Facebook may proactively show users a unit of related articles below the original post that questioned its claims or offered relevant context.

A post written by a third-party fact checker critiquing  the original story might also be included.

The feature is now being more broadly rolled out within the US and will be extended to Germany, France and the Netherlands. According to  Facebook, the tool may be expanded on the basis of individual countries' needs.

''If a lot of people are talking about a topic, or if a third party fact checker has fact-checked an article, our research has shown that seeing these fact checker articles is really helpful to help people identify whether the news they are reading is misleading or false,'' Facebook product manager Sara Su told Forbes in a phone interview. ''It also gives them more context to help them make more informed decisions about what they read and share on Facebook.''

Facebook explained in an update to an article dated 25 April 2017, on its website:

"Update: August 3, 2017: Rolling Out Related Articles More Broadly

"Since starting this test, we've heard that Related Articles helps give people more perspectives and additional information, and helps them determine whether the news they are reading is misleading or false. So we're rolling this out more broadly.

"Now, we will start using updated machine learning to detect more potential hoaxes to send to third-party fact checkers. If an article has been reviewed by fact checkers, we may show the fact checking stories below the original post. In addition to seeing which stories are disputed by third-party fact checkers, people want more context to make informed decisions about what they read and share. We will continue testing updates to Related Articles and other ongoing News Feed efforts to show less false news on Facebook and provide people context if they see false news."