Facebook is finally taking action against fake news!

After an election season infused with hoax stories, more than a month of global outcry and at least one real-world incident of gun violence in the US, Facebook is finally stepping up to combat the spread of fake news. 

The social network has announced that it will work with fact-checking outlets to label fake stories, flagged by users, as “disputed.”
 
Now before sharing a fake story on the site, you’ll get a warning that its accuracy has been disputed. To find out why, you’ll be able to click a link for a fact-check of the article.

The updates are rolling out this week, so you won’t see the disputed flags right away, but expect them shortly.

Facebook also announced several other steps that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had hinted at in a post last month.

It’s too early to know whether these efforts will be effective in combating the problem, which is perhaps larger in scope than many initially realized.

The company is finally coming to terms with the fake news problem. For now, Facebook will be working only with Snopes, FactCheck.org, Politifact, ABC News and the Associated Press, but hopes to add more as the site figures out what works.

While other sites, including Reddit and Twitter, have made some moves recently to combat fake news and vile trolling, Facebook is the last one to do so.

With its 1.8 billion monthly users, Facebook is a critical platform for news distribution. News websites now get a majority of their traffic from Facebook, as internet users switch from visiting home pages on desktops to using apps on their mobile devices. In the U.S., 44% of American adults get news on Facebook (source).