Facebook announces plans to let users decide publishers’ trustworthiness

Josie Tutty

January 21, 2018 10:45

Facebook has announced plans to begin prioritising publishers based on how much users trust them.

In a post on his site, Mark Zuckerberg detailed how Facebook will now ask its users whether they’re familiar with a news source and, if so, whether they trust that source. The results of these surveys will determine how widely posts from a particular publisher appear in news feeds.

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Josie Tutty

Josie Tutty was Mumbrella's deputy editor. She worked on the publication between 2017 and 2019. She's previously written and edited in the UK for Jungle Creations and Trinity Mirror.

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2 COMMENTS

christo 22 Jan 18

The problem with this strategy (allowing Facebook users to vote on news sources being trustworthy) is we know most people don’t have the ability to sort fact from fiction, and cognitive bias will always win out. Zuckerberg’s public voting mechanic will be “hacked” by fake accounts set up to manipulate the algorithm in favour of the news publisher. I’m not sure what the solution is. Thoughts from industry professionals?

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Steve 22 Jan 18

Can you imagine how much Trump would love this update…

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