In the latest development, Facebook has announced that it is rolling out a notification screen that alerts people when they share news articles that more than 90 days old. With the context button, the new notification screen is meant to inform users to make informed decisions about what to share on Facebook.
Notably, 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.
“Over the past several months, our internal research found that the timeliness of an article is an important piece of context that helps people decide what to read, trust and share,” said Facebook.
Instagram also launched a similar pop-up notification last year to curb its users from sharing abusive comments with a similar set of options.
The social media giant also said that over the next few months it will test other uses of notification screens. In regards to links mentioning COVID-19, the company has said that it is exploring a similar notification screen that provides information about the source of the link and directs people to the COVID-19 Information Center for authoritative health information.
“Through providing more context, our goal is to make it easier for people to identify content that’s timely, reliable, and most valuable to them,” Facebook added.