Facebook will soon tell you when a story may be fake

Facebook has struggled for months over whether it should crack down on false stories and hoaxes being spread on its site. Now, it has finally come to a decision.

The social network is going to partner with the Poynter International Fact-Checking Network, which includes groups such as Snopes, to evaluate articles flagged by Facebook users.

If those articles don't pass the smell test for the fact-checkers, Facebook will pass on that evaluation with a little label whenever they are posted or shared, along with a link to the organization that debunked the story.

'We have a responsibility to reduce the spread of fake news on our platform,” said Facebook's Adam Mosseri, vice president of product development, in an interview with The Washington Post. Mosseri added that Facebook still wants to be a place where people with all kinds of opinions can express themselves. And Facebook has no interest in being the arbiter of what's true and what isn't for its billion users, he said.

The new system will work like this: If there's a story out there that is patently false - saying that a celebrity is dead when they aren't, for example - then users will see a notice saying that the story has been disputed or debunked.

People who try and share stories that have been found false also will see an alert before they post. Flagged stories also will appear lower in the News Feed than unflagged stories.

Users also will be able to report potentially false stories to Facebook, or send messages to the person posting a questionable article directly.

The company is focusing, for now, on what Mosseri called the 'bottom of the barrel” websites that are purposefully set up to deceive and spread fake news, as well as those that are impersonating other news organizations.

'We are not looking to flag legitimate organizations,” Mosseri said. 'We're looking for pages posing as legitimate organizations.” Articles from legitimate sites that are controversial or even wrong shouldn't get flagged, he said.