A few months ago, amid much fanfare, Facebook started rolling out its new tool against fake news which warns users when they try to post fake stories on the platform. 。
SEE ALSO:Facebook has new safeguards for profile pictures, but it's just a first step。The feature, announced in December is the result of a collaboration with "third-party fact-checking organisations" -- such as。 The feature, announced in December is the result of a collaboration with "third-party fact-checking organisations" -- such as。 Snopes。 and 。 The Associated Press。 in the US and 。 Full Fact 。
in the UK. 。
However, that doesn't seem to have stopped blatantly fake stories from growing on the social network. 。
The most recent example is a story alleging that a baby "miraculously" survived twelve days after the Grenfell Tower fire in London 。
The story "quotes" detective superintendent Fiona McCormack as saying the baby was on the 16th floor and mentions tweets from the police and the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. 。
However, no quotes from McCormack were released to the media regarding that particular episode. A quick look at Met Police and Khan's twitter feed show no mention of a baby being rescued. 。
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This time, it has been fooling people with a particularly nasty trick. 。
It uses the BBC's "breaking news" holding image so that when a story is posted on Facebook it seems legit:。
A URL like that should immediately raise your suspicion level, but it hasn't stopped many people from sharing it on Facebook. Since Sunday, when it was published, the hoax was shared a total of almost 350,000 times: 。
The Facebook users above subsequently deleted the story, which has been shared on Twitter as a "miracle":。
The Facebook users above subsequently deleted the story, which has been shared on Twitter as a "miracle": 。
Tweet may have been deleted。
Tweet may have been deleted 。
Tweet may have been deleted。Others flagging it as a hoax: 。
Tweet may have been deleted 。
Mashable 。began the process of sharing the story on Facebook to see if it triggered a red alert in the pop-up window.。
No warning could be seen: 。
reached out to Facebook to seek clarity on the number of complaints needed for a story to trigger a suspect fake news warning, or for it to be taken down. We will update this post accordingly.。