Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently detailed the second part of the platform's plan to cut down on "fake news" sources. This part is more about giving power back to the users, as the creator of the social media platform said that they will survey users to determine which news sources are trustworthy.
The new surveys are expected to synergize well with already-existing "quality surveys" offered by Facebook, which asks users if the source of a news item is "familiar" or "trustworthy."
This new step is Facebook's most recent move to combat the seemingly rampant misinformation plaguing not only Facebook but the world in general.
"There's too much sensationalism, misinformation, and polarization in the world today," according to Zuckerberg.
He added that social media spreads information "faster than ever before," and if the platform does not address the issues, misinformation may become a really serious problem that can be amplified by social media accessibility.
Zuckerberg shared that the company also considered hiring outside sources and third-party companies to determine the trustworthiness of news sources. However, he felt that the "most objective" way is to ask Facebook's community of users regarding the veracity of a certain news article or source.
The new surveys are the second part of the plan towards a Facebook with less fake news and misinformation. The first part was detailed by Zuckerberg when he announced that the platform will shift the News Feed algorithm biases towards "more meaningful" posts. The company hopes that this will curb "useless" posts and will bring the offending posts down to the lowest priority in the feed.
Zuckerberg made it clear that the changes to the News Feed may not be immediately apparent. His estimate is that the recent changes will affect only about four percent of users' News Feeds (instead of the five percent that was initially projected).
