Facebook Will Show Fewer Hoaxes in Your News Feed

likebuttonFacebook announced in a blog post this week that it is stepping up its efforts to reduce hoaxes and fake stories in users’ News Feeds.

According to the site, the new update will reduce the distribution of posts that have been reported as hoaxes, and warnings will be added to these posts to discourage other users from clicking.

“News Feed will take into account when many people flag a post as false,” Facebook wrote in its announcement. “[It] will also take into account when many people choose to delete posts. This means a post with a link to an article that many people have reported as a hoax or chosen to delete will get reduced distribution in News Feed.”

It’s important to note that Facebook will not remove posts that are reported as false, and the site will not investigate whether content is true or not. But if a story gets reported enough times, Facebook will do its best to make sure you don’t see it. The site said that the update should not affect the vast majority of Page owners (unless if you run a hoax news site, of course), and that it should also not affect satirical or humorous content.