Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
In Facebook’s protracted efforts to be remembered as something other than the largest misinformation megaphone in history, it’s employed a number of strategies, from spinning its own misleading PR narratives to actual UI changes. Today, it announced a new tactic: not only will posts with misinformation in them be made less visible, but so will the individual users who share them.
For several years, the social giant has plugged away at fact-checking partnerships meant to disincentivize the spread of viral misinformation, using the results of those checks to label offending posts rather than removing them. In some cases, it’s taken small steps toward hiding things that are found to be false or polarizing — ending recommendations for…
