Facebook said Thursday that it would add a new feature in order to give new context around news stories.
According to a press release, Facebook will push a notification when a user attempts to share a news article that is more than 90 days old.
According to the press release, Facebook conducted research that indicated news organizations "expressed concerns about older stories being shared on social media as current news."
"To ensure people have the context they need to make informed decisions about what to share on Facebook, the notification screen will appear when people click the share button on articles older than 90 days, but will allow people to continue sharing if they decide an article is still relevant," Facebook said in a statement.
Facbeook's announcement came the day before a 2016 article by Scripps station WTVF in Nashville about the removal of a Billy Graham statue went viral on the platform, nearly four years after its publish date. Users have likely continued to share the 2016 story by conflating it with the removal of monuments dedicated to Confederate generals and slave owners in the wake of weekslong protests against systemic racism that began following the death of George Floyd in May.
Facebook says it began rolling out the feature to some users on Tuesday.
Facebook added that it's considering adding a similar notification screen to posts regarding COVID-19 that would link users to the site's COVID-19 Information Center for more information
