By Chloe Citron

Facebook has gone from a small social networking site where people could connect with their friends to a global news and entertainment resource. Although, a vast amount of content shared on Facebook is clickbait and fake news. Consistently seeing these types of posts makes my trust in the site go down, which in turn makes me use Facebook less. There have been countless times where I have clicked on a link on Facebook which then brings me to an outside site, which in turn shows me an article that tells me nothing close to what was promised in the headline. While generating clicks likely makes money for Facebook, it is bad for consumers.

"#Facebook users are often more engaged by #fakenews than they are by mundane truths. The … pending overhaul of it’s algorithm to give priority to material shared between individuals represents a retreat from real news just as much as it does from fake." https://t.co/LFTeidocVz

— Mike Walker (@maerkelig) January 22, 2018

One of the ways that Facebook can alleviate this problem, in my opinion, is by having a standard or set of rules for content posted on Facebook by media sites. By ensuring that the sites are only posting factual articles, not fake news, clickbait, or just nonsense, Facebook will be able to provide a better overall user experience for their consumers. Rather than having a survey for users to determine what is trustworthy, Facebook should have media sites submit materials under a review process so that they as a company can ensure that specific practices are being followed.

Facebook is changing the way "trust" is defined – #facebook #journalism #media #socialmedia #news #fakenews https://t.co/wL6gZw1s0o via @WIRED

— Cloud Tech Smart (@CloudTechSmart) January 25, 2018

Letting users rank the credibility of news is a very subjective process with large room for error. Less people under 25 are using Facebook now more than ever because of the unsatisfactory user experience. On other social media sites, like Instagram and Snapchat, fake news is much harder to find and almost nonexistent. There is a higher interest in these mediums because there is simply less content to sift through.