Facebook will ask users to read an article before sharing

Facebook will start asking users if they’re sure they want to share an article, that they haven’t opened, and this test will be rolled out to 6% of Android users worldwide.

Facebook will ask users to read the article with a pop-up, before sharing it. However, the rejection of the pop-up will be available, as users could get the opportunity to continue sharing if they want.

In fact, Twitter rolled out a similar pop-up in June 2020. It is certainly quite annoying to users who will have to respond to this additional pop-up, as they may well have read the article elsewhere on the web and decide to share it when they see it on their feed.

Facebook announced that the pop-up is meant to help people be more informed about the articles they share, likely as an attempt to combat the spread of misinformation the platform has struggled with in the past. According to the message, not opening the article can lead to “missing key facts,” with headlines often not telling the whole story.

Read Facebook’s warning message:

‘’Starting today, we’re testing a way to promote more informed sharing of news articles. If you go to share a news article link you haven’t opened, we’ll show a prompt encouraging you to open it and read it, before sharing it with others.’’