We've all heard the saying about not believing everything you read on the Internet but apparently some people have a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction.
Facebook is actively testing a new feature that would label fake news stories from sites like Clickhole, Empire News and The Onion as satire. The move is in response to some Facebook users that have been duped into believing some of the outlandish stories from such sites are legitimate according to a report from Mashable.
A representative from the social networking giant told the publication that they are running a small test which shows the text "[Satire]" in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in the News Feed. The tests have apparently been going on for about a month now with a variety of sites falling under the satire category.
It's unclear at this hour if an eventual rollout to all users is in the cards. If so, it could be bad news for sites like Literally Unbelievable that find and report stories from The Onion as interpreted by Facebook. Or in other words, they make fun of people that fall for phony news stories.
Of course, getting reeled in by a fake news story isn't limited to just the average Joe. There are multiple reports in which professional journalists have fallen victim to satire and reported it as actual news. Heck, it's one of the reasons that Google News adopted a satire tag.
Outside of April Fools' Day, have you ever fallen for a fake news story?