Facebook testing new feature to stop users from believing joke stories

Facebook is testing a new feature aimed at stopping users from actually believing jokes and stories on satirical websites like The Onion, The Independent reported.

If a user from those selected for the trial click-through to a piece from The Onion and then revisit Facebook, the related stories that show beneath the link when users return would then feature a tag marking it out as satire.

Ars Technica quoted a Facebook spokesperson who spoke to the site, as saying, the social network was running a small test, which showed the text '[Satire]' in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed according to the report. He added this was because Facebook received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units.

According the spokesperson, the test had been happening for over a month. He did not say whether the tag would be used on content from different websites, according to the statement.

The tag is not picked up by other sites like The Onion's BuzzFeed parody Clickhole. Another site often mistaken for real news is The New Yorker's Borowitz Report.

Many users take The Onion articles seriously as revealed by the kind of responses collected by Literally Unbelievable, a blog of comments outraged by the site's stories.

Readers recently had trouble distinguishing stories like a 9,600-mile roller coaster or Middle East bombings exposing the earth's mantle as unbelievable.

People living in Chicago, Illinois and Louisville, Kentucky could have found the social network's new feature helpful to nail the "purge" hoaxes based off the popular horror movie "The Purge" and its recent sequel, news site hngn.com reported.

A fictional story about teenagers killing 112 people in one night posted on satirical website Cream Bmp Daily went viral on Twitter. The site posted other purges in Detroit and Jacksonville, Florida for 15 August.

The site's disclaimer on its About page clarifies that the content is "for entertainment purposes only."

The city of Louisville took the 15 August purge reports more seriously. Police announced criminal proceedings against anyone who posted threatening messages on social media before that night, KSDK.com reported.

Spokesman for Louisville mayor Greg Fischer said one lesson was that people really needed to be careful about what they said on social media. He added the government took every threat seriously.