Reported! Instagram to roll out special button letting users flag ‘fake posts’

Fresh from the memes purge, Instagram is getting more 'alert' to 'fake content,' urging users to report it with a touch of a button. Experienced ‘fact-checkers’ from its parent company Facebook will take it from there.

The company is rolling out the option first in the US, and then worldwide by the end of August.

“I'm proud that, starting today, people can let us know if they see posts on Instagram they believe may be false,” Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri tweeted, adding, “Misinformation is an issue I've personally spent a lot of time on.”

Though Instagram already has features in place allowing users to report posts, the new button will add the ability to flag content for “false information.” The website’s reporting options were previously limited to “nudity or pornography,”“hate speech or symbols,”“it’s spam,” and “I just don’t like it,” offering advice to users on how to proceed under each circumstance.

The new reporting tool, once used, will trigger a review of the post in question by a team of “certified fact checkers,” who will “analyze its veracity,” according to a report from Poynter.org, which has partnered with Facebook on this initiative. Although Facebook pledged impartiality in its fact-checking, its trustworthy partners in this endeavor are backed by the US government and renowned meddlers like George Soros.

Posts found to be factually dubious will not be scrubbed from the platform altogether, as happened to scores of popular comedy and meme pages last month, but simply diverted away from the site’s “explore” and “hashtag” pages, where users can find trending content, Instagram spokesperson Stephanie Otway said.

But Mosseri suggested the new button was only a first step, and that there would be “more to come” in its effort to combat misinformation.

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