Facebook Is Going to Tell Users What Satire Is
Facebook is fed up with clickbait headlines and the websites that mock them. The Onion and its sister site, Clickhole, have become so good at mimicking those headlines that Facebook is now testing a "Satire" tag to help users tell the difference.
The tag is intended to help people who can't distinguish between headlines like, "What Happens To Your Face When You Wear Sunscreen Might Shock You. It Did For These People," and another like "It’s Time To Admit That Depression Is Real, Except For Teens Who Are Just Being Moody." The tag would appear as "[Satire]" in front of the fake headlines.
A Facebook spokesperson explained further in a statement to Ars Technica,
We are running a small test which shows the text '[Satire]' in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed. This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units."
The test has been running for just over a month. Here's an idea of how it would look, via Ars Technica:
The Onion, of course has taken the announcement in stride:
DOYLESTOWN, PA—Describing him as frequently frustrated and overwhelmed, sources confirmed Monday that local Facebook user Michael Huffman is incredibly stupid. “I need stuff easy,” said the absolute dipshit, adding that he finds many things confusing, and that those things must be changed so that they make sense to him. “I like looking at things on Facebook, but I don’t understand a lot. Help, please.” At press time, someone had reportedly fixed everything for the goddamn imbecile.
This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/technology/2014/08/facebook-is-going-to-tell-users-what-satire-is/378672/
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