Facebook to expand Related Articles feature in other countries to counter fake news

After receiving positive feedback on how ‘Related Articles’ helped people determine whether the news they are reading is misleading or false, Facebook has now rolled out the feature more broadly. [caption id=“attachment_3887701” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image: Reuters[/caption]

According to a report in TechCrunch on Friday, the feature is rolling out in the US, Germany, France and the Netherlands, because Facebook already has partner fact checkers in those countries.

“It might take a while to reach other locations, depending on how quickly Facebook can cut deals with local fact checkers worldwide,” the report added. ‘Related Articles’ was launched in 2013 to help people discover new articles they may find interesting about the same topic. These articles appear in News Feed after people read an article. Earlier this year, Facebook added articles in this section that provided people easier access to additional perspectives and information, including articles by third-party fact checkers. In a blog post, Facebook on Thursday said it 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,” Facebook said. The company said it 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.