Last year in October, Facebook had announced to launch a News section as a limited test in the US.
Now, Facebook News has been launched as a separately dedicated section for trending stories for all the users in the US. According to TechCrunch, Facebook has also included local news tab to its News section.
Facebook News will be curated by journalists and additional algorithms that will personalize the news story selection in a better way. Users will be able to react and share the news articles, but they won’t be able to comment. They can also hide articles and topics, even the publishers that they do not wish to see again.
Facebook is claiming to use methods to detect misinformation, engagement bait, clickbait, or the use of scraped content through third-party fact-checkers. These are some of the integrity standards that the publishers will have to abide by to be qualified for inclusion in Facebook News.
The News section appears as a tab in the three-lined ‘More’ menu on mobiles as a bookmark. Soon, a button in the Facebook app will also be available for the News tab.
Facebook has also included some features in the News section that show breaking news alerts, timely news digests, and targeted notifications like ‘Coronavirus alert’ or ‘Unrest in America.’
The notifications for news will appear at the top and they may also include live video alerts or breaking news alerts covering some ongoing issue.
Facebook plans to include news videos in the News section too, along with local news that brings thousands of local and regional publications from more than 6000 cities and towns.
Facebook has more than 200 general news publishers that are like local outlets now. With so many publishers, Facebook will have to be really alert about the integrity standards to avoid misinformation and false propaganda. Unfortunately, Facebook has served its users with a lot of fake news and disinformation in the past because of extremely lenient or non-existing fact-checking systems. That is the reason why any news on Facebook is not considered completely trustworthy.
However, now that Facebook News has launched in the US, the company will have to be really uptight about fact-checking and other methods to avoid the misinformation as much as possible.
Previously, Facebook had the ‘Today In’ section that provided local stories and news to the users. This section’s content will merge with the Facebook News content in the coming weeks so that news will be present in a single place, rather than in multiple sections.
Facebook News is live for the mobile app, but the desktop tab has not rolled out yet.
Read next: This DataViz Shows Who Owns the Most Visited News Sites in the World
Now, Facebook News has been launched as a separately dedicated section for trending stories for all the users in the US. According to TechCrunch, Facebook has also included local news tab to its News section.
Facebook News will be curated by journalists and additional algorithms that will personalize the news story selection in a better way. Users will be able to react and share the news articles, but they won’t be able to comment. They can also hide articles and topics, even the publishers that they do not wish to see again.
Facebook is claiming to use methods to detect misinformation, engagement bait, clickbait, or the use of scraped content through third-party fact-checkers. These are some of the integrity standards that the publishers will have to abide by to be qualified for inclusion in Facebook News.
The News section appears as a tab in the three-lined ‘More’ menu on mobiles as a bookmark. Soon, a button in the Facebook app will also be available for the News tab.
Facebook has also included some features in the News section that show breaking news alerts, timely news digests, and targeted notifications like ‘Coronavirus alert’ or ‘Unrest in America.’
The notifications for news will appear at the top and they may also include live video alerts or breaking news alerts covering some ongoing issue.
Facebook plans to include news videos in the News section too, along with local news that brings thousands of local and regional publications from more than 6000 cities and towns.
Facebook has more than 200 general news publishers that are like local outlets now. With so many publishers, Facebook will have to be really alert about the integrity standards to avoid misinformation and false propaganda. Unfortunately, Facebook has served its users with a lot of fake news and disinformation in the past because of extremely lenient or non-existing fact-checking systems. That is the reason why any news on Facebook is not considered completely trustworthy.
However, now that Facebook News has launched in the US, the company will have to be really uptight about fact-checking and other methods to avoid the misinformation as much as possible.
Previously, Facebook had the ‘Today In’ section that provided local stories and news to the users. This section’s content will merge with the Facebook News content in the coming weeks so that news will be present in a single place, rather than in multiple sections.
Facebook News is live for the mobile app, but the desktop tab has not rolled out yet.
Read next: This DataViz Shows Who Owns the Most Visited News Sites in the World
