Most people reading this have learned not to implicitly trust the things that appear on Facebook, but not everyone is so cautious. The social network has been using a strategy called "remove, reduce, and inform" since 2016 to deal with false and misleading news. Today, Facebook says it's adding new policies to each of those three areas. Surely, this time it'll have the problem licked. Right? Right?!

Here's the full "remove, reduce, and inform" changelog.

REMOVE

  • Rolling out a new section on the Facebook Community Standards site where people can track the updates we make each month.
  • Updating the enforcement policy for Facebook groups and launching a new Group Quality feature.

REDUCE

  • Kicking off a collaborative process with outside experts to find new ways to fight more false news on Facebook, more quickly.
  • Expanding the content the Associated Press will review as a third-party fact-checker.
  • Reducing the reach of Facebook Groups that repeatedly share misinformation.
  • Incorporating a “Click-Gap” signal into News Feed ranking to ensure people see less low-quality content in their News Feed.

INFORM

  • Expanding the News Feed Context Button to images.
  • Adding Trust Indicators to the News Feed Context Button on English and Spanish content.
  • Adding more information to the Facebook Page Quality tab.
  • Allowing people to remove their posts and comments from a Facebook Group after they leave the group.
  • Combatting impersonations by bringing the Verified Badge from Facebook into Messenger.
  • Launching Messaging Settings and an Updated Block feature on Messenger for greater control.
  • Launched Forward Indicator and Context Button on Messenger to help prevent the spread of misinformation.

Facebook details each of these changes in its blog post, including the rollout plans. The reduce and inform components of the plan seem the most helpful. For example, Facebook will begin using fact-checking to adjust how much reach accounts have. Get marked as "fake news" too often, and people won't see your posts.

Of course, it's impossible to fact check everything that goes up on Facebook. The site is working with the Associated Press to check more stories, but it's a drop in the bucket when everyone in your extended family is sharing posts from totallyrealnews.ru. Most of the new policies are starting today, either in the US or globally. A few will roll out over the coming weeks.

Source: Facebook