Facebook has gone from social connection app to a massive purveyor of global news in a matter of years. Along the way, elections have been decided, activist movements have been spurred, family gatherings have been ruined, all thanks to Facebook’s unflinching commitment to free speech and letting people share what they choose. Fortunately, the company is now trying to make the way users share news a bit more informed. It’s doing this by adding a warning notification to users when attempting to share an article that’s too old to be relevant. The post went on to explain that, in true hands-off Facebook fashion, users will still obviously be able to post the article if they wish, after acknowledging that the article is more than three months old.
Why is Facebook Adding This Update?
Facebook is always looking to update its platform, but this update is about more than making the big F look prettier. This update should, ideally, help Facebook to combat the aggressive spread of misinformation on the site. Plus, according to its blog post, there’s plenty of appetite for it: The most likely answer is that Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t felt motivated to make such changes – by his own definition, the platform is still perfectly successful. Sharing misinformation is still sharing, which means Facebook is doing its job: getting people to connect online. As Zuckerberg is happy to point out, Facebook isn’t an “arbiter of truth.” It’s merely a vessel for free speech, regardless of how overly destructive and obviously untrue that speech may be, a point of view that has to change if we want social media to ever return to its former glory. Unfortunately, until the social media platforms take a clear stance on their role in the global discussion of free speech versus misinformation, the best we’re going to get is articles that actually have the date displayed.
