Facebook announced in a blog post Tuesday that it has added a new feature that will help users keep fake stories about them from getting out to the public.
With the new "false" button, users can hide posts stating inaccurate information and flag them as hoaxes, according to Wired. The social networking giant said such posts will appear in News Feeds less often as they keep getting flagged.
Posts that have received a large amount of flags won't be deleted, but the website could put out a disclaimer about multiple users reporting the story to be false.
Facebook said in the blog post that it created the feature after receiving feedback from users about their desire for less fake, misleading stories on the site, the New York Daily News reported. Bosses in the company getting upset about such stories showing up in their timelines also played a role in its creation.
"People often share these hoaxes and later decide to delete their original posts after they realize they've been tricked," wrote software engineer Erich Owens and research scientist Udi Weinsberg.
Fake stories that have gained a lot of attention on the site range from Sarah Palin joining Al Jazeera America to a town in Texas getting quarantined because of the Ebola virus.
The feature allows Facebook to handle stories from websites claiming to be doing satire, as satire that isn't aiming at being funny is most likely a scam, and Facebook's reputation can be harmed with an abundance of these posts, Wired reported.
However, Owens and Weinsberg said the false button won't impact The Onion and other satirical sites' ability to share content, as tests have shown that people usually don't report satirical content that is intended to be funny, "or content that is clearly labeled as satire," the Daily News reported.
With publishers having fewer opportunities to post fake stories, Facebook users have been given a way to make sure their reputations stay intact.
