Facebook to survey users to determine trustworthiness of news sources

In order to combat fake news, Facebook is asking its users to complete a survey to determine what is a high-quality content. The survey will be used to implement News Feed rankings and Facebook plans to test this feature in the US first before rolling out globally.

Facebook's Head of News, Adam Moserri announced in a blog post that the company has surveyed a diverse and representative sample of US citizens about the trust and familiarity of multiple news sources. As part of the survey, users will be asked if they are familiar with a news source and whether they trust the news source.

The move is latest in the series of many such efforts by Facebook to establish trust with the public in the aftermath of 2016 US elections. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook " target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote in a blog post, "There's too much sensationalism, misinformation, and polarization in the world today. Social media enables people to spread information much faster than ever before, and if we don't specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them."

Recently, Facebook announced that it would be shifting its News Feed algorithms to prioritize meaningful content posts. The News Feed will now prioritize posts from friends and family over other promotional posts.

Additionally, Facebook will also give priority to local news and will "continue to work on ways to show more local news that is relevant to where people live."