Facebook will soon roll out tools in Germany that will allow users to flag fake news stories more easily. Users are encouraged to flag any fake news that they see on the social networking service by clicking the upper right corner of the post. However, the company notes that it will still be possible to share these posts, but users will get a warning saying that the truthfulness of the post is questionnable. Facebook says that it will learn from these tests, and will further improve and expand its tools over time.
Fake news has become a major cause of concern for Facebook. There were reports which stated that such news had influenced voters in the 2016 US Presidential Elections. But, Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg had dismissed the notion called it a “pretty crazy idea.” However, he later said that the company takes misinformation very seriously and even listed seven ways to tackle the problem. Further, there were reports that Facebook employees had formed an unofficial group to tackle the issue of fake news. Facebook and Google have also announced that they will take steps to ensure that fake news websites do not generate revenue through their ad selling services.