Test urges Facebook to read links before sharing

When Facebook shares a post containing a link to a news article on May 11 (local time), it started a test that prompts you to read it first if the target was not opened. It’s a test to promote more information-based sharing.

If you try to share without opening the link, you’ll get a message that it’s not open yet, and be warned that sharing without reading an article could potentially miss important facts. After that, it provides the option to share or open the document as it is.

Sharing only the title without reading an article, or unconditionally sharing because of postings of acquaintances or celebrities is not limited to Facebook, but is common on social media. As a result, it often leads to problems that lead to spread, such as fake news.

To respond to this, Twitter added a similar way in September 2020 to prompt you to read the target article first. In a similar effort, Facebook has added a warning feature when the topic it is trying to share is out of date.

It is not known whether or not this feature will be officially adopted, but as stated earlier, if you share it without thinking, it may lead to participation in the spread of fake news.