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Facebook prompts you to read news articles before sharing

The test prompt is similar to one that Twitter unveiled last year.

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Carrie Mihalcik
Facebook's test prompt for news articles on a phone.

The prompt will encourage people to open and read a news article before sharing it with others.

 Facebook

Facebook appears to be taking a page out of Twitter's playbook and is testing a prompt that will encourage people to read news articles before sharing them on the social network. Starting this week, people in the test will see a prompt that says they may miss "key facts" by sharing an article without reading it, according to the company. They'll then have the option to open the news article or continue sharing. 

"Starting today, we're testing a way to promote more informed sharing of news articles," reads a tweet from the social network's official communications account. "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."

Last year, Twitter said it saw "more informed tweeting" after rolling out its own prompt encouraging people to read news articles before sharing them. After a test period in June 2020, Twitter said that people open articles 40% more often after seeing the prompt and that the amount of people opening articles before retweeting went up by 33%. 

See also: Facebook lets you take the wheel on two big features. Here's how to use them

Facebook has been working to boost trust and transparency in the algorithms that power its news feed. In March, the social network introduced changes to give people more control over what appears in their news feed and who's allowed to comment on their posts.