This nifty tool shows how Facebook could mark fake news if they wanted

Facebook, the world’s social network of choice, is in hot water over the recent rise of fake news on the platform.

Even though the company announced today that it’s no longer letting fake news sites use its ad network, there are still plenty of websites trying to spread false information. Mark Zuckerberg was quick to comment on the criticism by saying it’s “complicated” to identify what’s true and what’s not.

What he doesn’t want to say is that while the company could try and mark news as fake, it could easily upset users if it gets it wrong. For example, if a Fox News article is accidentally marked fake, the channel itself and its supporters wouldn’t be happy.

But that’s not good enough for some users. Daniel Sieradski couldn’t take any of Zuckerberg’s excuses any longer and whipped up a Chrome extension showing the social network exactly how easy marking fake news really is.

There is still reason to be sceptical, however. The list of questionable sources is hand-picked by Sieradski, so the results might include his personal bias.

The extension currently serves more as a proof-of-concept than as a finished tool, however it shows how easily Facebook could implement something like this themselves, if they wouldn’t be so scared to tick off its users.