Drew Tetangco
- A lot of false information and fake news is being spread through social media platforms
- Instagram will be implementing a system that will allow users to flag posts that they think show false information
- This is their own effort in order to stop the spread of false information with topics such as vaccines, etc.
With the widespread use of social media, a lot of people tend to go to such platforms when they try to do their research on certain topics. Most of the time, though, there are certain things that are posted online but are not totally accurate, but people would usually believe them instead of finding other information.
False information tend to get spread faster more, which may have a negative effect on people. Topics such as the side effect of vaccines or even the shape of the Earth have been a hot topic all this time, but such social media platforms are now trying to put in tools that help in preventing such things.
Instagram will be implementing a means to flag a post that is deemed to have false information. In a recent article by CNN Philippines, they said that the feature will be rolled out by the end of August this year.
Once implemented, users will have the means of flagging a post by pressing the menu button at the top right corner (button with three dots), select “inappropriate” and then flag it as “false information.”
Said posts will be reviewed by fact checkers, but will not be removed. Instead, the posts will not appear in its Search or Explore pages.
Instagram has issues regarding false information and just last May, they had blocked hastags that is related to misinformation regarding the safety of vaccines.
Instagram is also planning to train artificial intelligence so that checking for misinformation will be automated as well.
Also read: Instagram Joins the Fight Against Online Bullying
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