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The Onion: no laughing matters for some Facebook users
The Onion: no laughing matters for some Facebook users Photograph: Screengrab
The Onion: no laughing matters for some Facebook users Photograph: Screengrab

Facebook satire tag aims to stop you getting fooled by the Onion

This article is more than 9 years old

Social network trials feature that would flag up fake news stories from humorous sites in users’ news feeds

Fed up with being taken in by headlines such as “Security Experts Advise Americans To Not Click Anything”? Facebook may have the answer: the social network is testing a tag to flag up stories from sites such as the Onion, reports Mashable. A Facebook spokesman said: “We are running a small test which shows the text “[Satire]” in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed. This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units.” A screengrab obtained by Ars Technica shows how the tags would look (in the sublinks to the main story):

Facebook satire tag trial
Facebook satire tag trial Photograph: /Ars Technica Photograph: Ars Technica

Monkey is sure the move would prevent gullible readers from being taken in – but can’t help feeling it would spoil the fun of spotting the Onion headlines among the breaking news on Facebook.

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