Facebook Tests New Warning Prompts to Stop Users Sharing Articles They Haven’t Read
by EDM Cave Staff May 11, 2021
Facebook is following Twitter’s lead by adding new alert prompts when users go to share an article on Facebook if they haven’t already opened the link themselves first.
As explained by Facebook:
“Starting today, we’re testing a way to promote more informed sharing of news articles. If you go to share a news article link you haven’t opened, we’ll show a prompt encouraging you to open it and read it, before sharing it with others.”
As you can see, the prompts will alert people that they’re about to share a link they haven’t opened, with a brief explainer on the potential issues with this approach.
That, ideally, will get more people to reconsider sharing links without understanding the full context, which could help to reduce misinformation, and angst, among Facebook users.
As noted, Twitter added warnings on sharing unopened links last June, which it says have lead to users opening articles 40% more often, and have slowed the rate of ill-informed amplification.
