Facebook shrinks fake news after warnings backfire

For what feels like the umpteenth time, Facebook is introducing another new plan to fight against the scourge of fake news that populates the platform, this time by making shrinking the size of links to bogus claims and hoaxes … The new measures at least begin to break the uniformity that Facebook gives to everything shared on its platform—an issue that, while creating a consistent visual appearance, also adds legitimacy to fake news stories by making them look nearly identical to real ones in the newsfeed … Researchers reported that hoaxes and rumors reach more people and spread much faster than stories from reliable sources, primarily because human nature makes us susceptible to giving in to feelings of fear, disgust, and surprise—all emotions that fake news stories are often crafted to invoke.