I think we’re all very aware by now that some of the biggest political events of the last year or so have been severely clouded by fake news (EU referendum or American presidential election, anyone?). And in the aftermath of it all Facebook which, let’s not forget, is the world’s biggest and most overwhelmingly powerful social media platform, has been held accountable for its role in the largely uncensored sharing of false information.
Since accepting responsibility for their part, Facebook has rolled out various new features to try and combat the issue. They popped print adverts in newspapers explaining how to spot a fake news storyand introduced new policies that included flagging ‘disputed’ stories to readers. How far they’ve managed to halt the viral spread of digital propaganda is well, questionable so far, but the latest attempt to prevent a repeat of the shit show that was 2016, Facebook are rolling out another handy little feature.
It’s called Perspectives, was first introduced during the French presidential election last month and is now going to be available in the UK ahead of our general election in a couple of weeks. Facebook explains that idea is for when someone clicks on an article about the election in their News Feed, they’ll receive a prompt beneath the post with an option to compare major political party perspectives on a particular issue. So, in theory, you’d be able to work out where each party stands on things like housing directly within the app, off the back of a related article you’d been reading.
‘People have told us it is sometimes difficult to find reliable and comprehensive information about the parties election manifestos’, A Facebook spokesperson said. ‘In response, we created a space that allows each party to share explanations of their campaigns directly to people through their Facebook page. People can choose to engage with different party Pages to learn about the issues that matter to them’.
So just to clarify, all the content you’ll see in Perspectives is written by political parties, not by a team over at Facebook. Facebook also says the feature is part of their ongoing work to help build an informed community and make it easier for people to access information about manifestos, which sounds ideal in theory but in practice, will have to hold up against the ease with which people can still share the misleading stories which influence the views that’ll transpire in the voting booth.
The Perspectives tool isn’t activated based on who’s reading an article, but rather on the type of article which means if we all clicked on the same article, we all should see exactly the same party content. You’ll also only be prompted with the option to use the tool a maximum of three times a day though.
I guess how effective Perspectives will be, really depends on whether or not people actually opt to use the tool. And while I'm sure the intention is welcomed by many, forcing its users to consume party-written political chatter in an attempt to open their eyes to viewpoints beyond their own, isn't exactly something anyone can enforce. Not even Facebook. What will be interesting to see though, is what happens to this feature post-election because sure, the fake news agenda will certainly shift away from what the Tories have or haven't promised to do in a post-Brexit world until actual Brexit comes around. But the core issue around false content and how easily it spreads online won't change course so quickly.
Image courtesy of Facebook
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.