Facebook adds labels to satire pages because people can’t tell what’s real

Facebook has begun adding labels to satire pages so that it can make extra sure that people aren’t confusing satire for, you know, real news.

While internet-saavy folk generally know how to tell ‘real’ news apart from satire, the truth is that many Facebook users do not. It is too common of an occurrence to see someone share an article from The Onion or The Borowitz Report as if it were serious news.

The new labels show up under the page’s name as a bit of grey text.

Starting today in the US, we’re testing a way to give people more context about the Pages they see. We’ll gradually start applying labels including 'public official,' 'fan page' or 'satire page' to posts in News Feed, so people can better understand who they’re coming from. pic.twitter.com/Bloc3b2ycb

— Facebook Newsroom (@fbnewsroom) April 7, 2021

But wait, there’s more! The company is also rolling out ‘public official’ and ‘fan page’ labels for added transparency. The new labels build on disclaimers added for state-controlled media last year.

The labels begin rolling out today, although Facebook notes it is ‘testing’ the feature, so you might still have to deal with family members unwittingly sharing satire for some time yet.