Social media ‘trust or distrust’ buttons may help curb spread of fake news

The addition of ‘trust’ and ‘distrust’ buttons on social media, alongside standard ‘like’ buttons, could help to reduce the spread of misinformation, finds a new experimental study.

Incentivising accuracy cut in half the reach of false posts, according to the findings published in eLife.

“Over the past few years, the spread of misinformation, or ‘fake news’, has skyrocketed, contributing to the polarisation of the political sphere and affecting people’s beliefs on anything from vaccine safety to climate change to tolerance of diversity. Existing ways to combat this, such as flagging inaccurate posts, have had limited impact,” said Professor Tali Sharot at University College London.