Facebook has recently been adding new features to limit coronavirus-related misinformation on its platform. In April, Facebook started warning users who engaged with fake coronavirus-related news, and now, the social media giant is adding a new warning banner that provides background information about articles related to coronavirus before you share them.
“We’re starting to roll out a global notification screen to give people more context about COVID-19 related links when they are about to share them. The notification will help people understand the recency and source of the content before they share it,” wrote Facebook in a blog post.
The details in the banner include the original source of the article, registered month of the article’s domain, and the time when the article got first shared. In the warning, Facebook will also link users to its COVID-19 Information Center to offer credible information. This way, Facebook hopes users would stay in the loop with details provided by global health authorities.
Facebook’s new warning banner is an extension of its efforts to denote the recency of articles. In June, the company started adding a notification screen for articles that are over 90 days old. With this addition, users will easily know if they are sharing articles that have been circulating in the platform for years.
It is worth noting that Facebook will not add this new warning banner on content posted by government health authorities and recognized global health organizations, such as the World Health Organization. Facebook says this move is to avoid slowing down information from credible health authorities.
