Facebook is considering tagging the content of satirical websites, such as the Onion, to prevent users from taking jokes and sarcasm literally.
The social media giant is testing a feature where, if a user clicks to a piece on the Onion and goes back to Facebook, the related stories appearing beneath the link will be marked as satire.
"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," a Facebook official told the Independent.
"This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others."
Facebook, which said it has been testing the feature with trial users for over a month, did not confirm whether the tag would be used on websites other than Onion.
The New Yorker's "Borowitz Report," another satirical site, is also often mistaken for real news.
The social media giant is testing a feature where, if a user clicks to a piece on the Onion and goes back to Facebook, the related stories appearing beneath the link will be marked as satire.
"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," a Facebook official told the Independent.
"This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others."
Facebook, which said it has been testing the feature with trial users for over a month, did not confirm whether the tag would be used on websites other than Onion.
The New Yorker's "Borowitz Report," another satirical site, is also often mistaken for real news.
