Facebook’s strategy to keep its nearly 2 billion users more informed involves feeding them a lot of news stories.
The social networking giant said Tuesday that it’s testing a new feature that will show people articles—presumably news stories from major media outlets—before they read articles shared by their Facebook friends.
The goal is to give “people more ways to see a more complete picture of a story or topic” when they see a particular story that’s trending and is being shared in their news feeds, explained Facebook news feed product manager Sara Su in a blog post.
Facebook has come under fire for its news feed creating so-called filter bubbles for its users in which people only receive articles and content that affirm their personal beliefs and values. Some political analysts speculate that the rise of fake news being shared on Facebook has led to a more misinformed public and contributed to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory.
Get Data Sheet, Coins2Day’s technology newsletter.
Although Facebook (FB) has downplayed the prevalence of fake news on its service, it’s been steadily creating initiatives and debuting new technology to curtail bogus news stories.
In early April, for example, Facebook, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, and others created a $14-million initiative to help invest projects that “to increase trust in journalism around the world, and to better inform the public conversation,” according to an announcement.
Facebook’s new feature is essentially a revamped version of the company’s Related Articles feature it debuted in 2013. The original design of Related Articles was to show related news stories after a person reads a shared article, but the new version that Facebook’s testing basically flips the process.
Su wrote that when a person’s Facebook friends are “discussing an article about a new medical advancement,” the company might show the person “a few other articles below it from different publishers about the same medical topic.”
The revamped Related Articles feature should “provide people easier access to additional perspectives and information, including articles by third-party fact-checkers,” Su said.
For more about technology and finance, watch:
By showing articles from presumably reputable publishers prior to reading a shared article that could contain misinformation, Facebook is hoping that users will share more accurate stories with their friends.
Facebook did not say when it would finish testing the new Related Articles feature or from which publications it would show users news stories.