Facebook to notify when you share old news

If you are about to share news articles that are more than three months old on your timeline, then Facebook will alert you. While Facebook will not stop you from sharing old articles, it will make it a two step process so that you are aware that you are actually sharing news that’s at least 90-days old. Facebook thinks by doing this, users may avoid sharing old articles that may be misinterpreted by their followers.

This feature will be rolling out to all users globally.

“News publishers in particular have expressed concerns about older stories being shared on social media as current news, which can misconstrue the state of current events. Some news publishers have already taken steps to address this on their own websites by prominently labeling older articles to prevent outdated news from being used in misleading ways,” said Facebook in its official blog.

“The notification screen will appear when people click the share button on articles older than 90 days, but will allow people to continue sharing if they decide an article is still relevant,” it added.

Meanwhile, Facebook recently rolled out new safety features to its Messenger platform in order to curb interactions with strangers that could lead them to getting scammed. Messenger will now get ‘safety notices’ that are said to popup in a chat whenever a suspicious activity is spotted. Not only that, the platform is also said to provide tips and even take action such as blocking the person.

On the other hand, Twitter is also said to be testing a new feature on Android devices that prompts users to open articles before sharing them. Twitter has been tightening its policies in recent years amid criticism that its hands-off approach had allowed abuse, fake accounts and misinformation to thrive on its platform.

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