Facebook has now started testing a new feature that will ask users if they really want to share an article from the Facebook feed if they have not read it. A pop-up will appear with a message warning the user that not opening the article can lead to “missing key facts”. It then gives the option to “Open Article” or to “Continue Sharing”.
Obviously, Facebook has no way of knowing if the user has read the same article somewhere else outside of Facebook. So the goal is to help people to be more aware of the articles they share as an attempt to combat the spread of misinformation. This new feature is currently being rolled out to 6 percent of Android users worldwide for testing.
However, Facebook is not the first to do this. Twitter did something similar last year with their “Headlines don’t tell the full story” pop-up asking the user to read the article before Retweeting it.
