Facebook Adds Trust Indicators to Prevent Fake News

Facebook is setting up security features to prevent the circulation of fake news on their platform. Facebook will be setting up initiatives designed to promote authentic, fact-based journalism. The company is announced that it will begin a ‘trust indicator,’ an icon that you can tap to learn more about the publisher of articles shared on Facebook.

Trust indicators will be attached to articles shared on Facebook. These will offer information about publishers including their policies on ethics, fact-checking, and corrections. Furthermore, users can check on publishers ownership structure and their masthead. Facebook said it will begin with a small group of publishers and expand over time.

According to Facebook, “We believe that helping people access this important contextual information can help them evaluate if articles are from a publisher they trust and if the story itself is credible.”

The introduction of trust indicators follows a move last month to introduce other contextual information into shared articles, including a basic description of the publisher, and other articles about the subject. The indicators were developed by the Trust Project, an international consortium of news organizations hosted by Santa Clara University. The organization’s founders include Google and Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist.

Google, Bing and Twitter have all committed to displaying these indicators, though not all implementations are yet live.

On Google, the Trust Indicators will appear within Google News, Google Search, and in other Google products where news is found.