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[thespot84]

Since I saw this on a fake news site at first, I thought it was a joke, but it turns out to be real (per the Washington Post):

In a move that could permanently cripple the Internet’s unchecked hoax industry (… and ruin at least a couple of decent punch lines), Facebook this week announced that it’s experimenting with a tag that will mark sites such as the Onion, Clickhole and Empire News as satire — and, hopefully, alert the millions of gullible people who share these sites as truth each week.

I originally stumbled across this when someone linked to a story from nationalreport.net about facebook working with the DEA to go after drug dealers. My idea of 'satire' is The Onion or Clickhole, so I didn't immediately start reading this as satire, but my fake-meter went off as I read it, and googling the phone number at the bottom led me to the westboro baptist church. I then saw on my facebook feed that there were indeed [satire] tags next to related news stories, which led me to the WaPo article.

While nationalreport.net has some borderline satire ("Fundamentalist Chef Will Bake Koran on Live TV"), the WaPo article linked to other sites like http://witscience.org/, which is an example of pure clickbait, with no critical literary or humor value at all.

I'm torn in what I believe should be done, if anything at all. On the one hand, watching people believe satire is a pastime of mine, however purely fake news sites simply prey on the gullible and muddy up important conversations. I feel like The Onion, and other actual satirical sites, provide a service, as satire provides literary value, and those sites are going to get lost in the mix. Can witscience.org be considered 'satire'? And should facebook do anything at all in terms of editorializing content?

 

[Makonero]

As someone who has had to gently explain to my parents/brother that the thing they're getting upset about is satire, this is a godsend. If only they'd add a link to snopes debunking it, since some people will still believe it regardless of satire tags.

 

[thespot84]

As someone who has had to gently explain to my parents/brother that the thing they're getting upset about is satire, this is a godsend. If only they'd add a link to snopes debunking it, since some people will still believe it regardless of satire tags.

I suppose i'm just worried that things of real value - legitimate satire - will suffer. I suppose i'm fortunate that those I care about have not fallen for these traps.... yet.

 

[Mesoian]

There are people who need it. I expect none of the sources of these satire stories to stop.

Now, what'll really be interesting is if they start labeling stuff like Fox News as satire.

 

[Orbis Tabula]

I'd rather them have a [Bullshit] or [Clickbait] label, but I guess it's okay.

 

[kick51]

Satire only exposes weakness in people's thought processes.

 

[thespot84]

Satire only exposes weakness in people's thought processes.

you say that like it's a bad thing.

 

[timetokill]

Relevant to OP:

 

[thespot84]

Relevant to OP:

Well this is part of my point. The issue of [satire] tags is probably minor, but in terms of sites that deliver content catering to the lowest common denominator, at what point do we start missing out?

 

[kick51]

you say that like it's a bad thing.

no, you read that like i said it like it's a bad thing.

 

[NegroNinja]

This will be extremely useful. I've had so many people on my Facebook try to pass off the Onion as legitimate news it cracks me up every time.

 

[Badosh]

Relevant to OP:

That gave me a good lol.

 

[whatsinaname]

This is going to be even more confusing now. I can definitely see people post stupid things and use the satire tag as a CYA.

 

[daviyoung]

whatever helps idiots navigate safely around the internet

 

[Empty]

it's not really a big deal. it's a fun, smug laugh when people mistake satire for reality but the best satire should be written such that it's funny beyond gotcha value.

 

[BertramCooper]

I hate the idea of it, but a #satire tag probably would helped out The Onion when they called Quvenzhané Wallis a cunt on Twitter and nobody got the joke.

Still a lame concept, though. Let stupid people figure it out for themselves, Facebook.

 

[kris.]

had someone mistake this for real news the other day. i've never seen so much rage over a fake news article. good on facebook, this shit's annoying.

 

[thespot84]

just to clarify, if someone posts a story from a fake site and it shows up on your newsfeed, it will NOT have a [satire] tag. right now the tag only shows up under posts in the 'related' section