Struggling to tame the spread of misinformation on its platform, Facebook can better reduce the extent to which their users fall for and spread fake news articles by deploying a better designed fake news flag. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin found that although Facebook users may be too quick to believe or share misinformation, flagging fake news can also make a significant difference. The new paper published in Information Systems Research, studied what tools would help Facebook users spot fake news.
The first intervention the researchers tested was a stop sign icon. The second was a strong statement, "Declared Fake by 3rd Party Fact-Checkers". Each intervention was effective, but when combined, they were almost twice as powerful.
The researchers conducted several studies to see what would have the biggest impact on getting people to avoid spreading fake news.
They found that the combination of the stop sign, statement and awareness training had the biggest impact. Although the social network in December 2016 started flagging fake news with an icon combined with a brief warning statement, it stopped doing so about a year later
