Facebook is now battling fake news stories being shared all over users' newsfeeds.

Everyone have seen fake news appeared on Facebook --- those posts being shared with a caption that entices people to click on the link below it; and when you do click on it, it either redirects you to another "news" website or blog post that will seem more questionable than convincing. This can get annoying, mainly because people sometimes neglect to do a little bit of research if the story they are about to share is based on real facts or not. It may seem harmless at times, but when a man's assault on a pizza restaurant is blamed to a bogus news story, it becomes an entirely different thing. The recent US election also saw confusion due to fake news circulating all over Facebook. Thus, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that it needs to improve on handling misinformation.

According to scpr, Facebook will now rely on users to flag possible fake news stories that will appear on their walls. They can navigate to the upper right corner of the post and click "it's a fake news story". The story will then be sent to fact-checkers to confirm the story. If the post is confirmed to be bogus, an alert message will be tagged as "it's been disputed by fact-checkers". The story may still be shared by users, but with a disputed warning on it this time. Facebook also stated that fake news is financially motivated. With almost 2 billion users logging in to Facebook every month, it seems to be one of the best ways of driving traffic to those kinds of websites.

It is sad to know that people will make up bogus stories just to make a buck, without even realizing the possible consequences it might create. Facebook users also need to be more aware of the stories they share. If this action by Facebook is successful, everyone will never have to worry about getting slammed by others or even getting in serious trouble for sharing fake stories anymore.