It's tough knowing what's real or not out there on the Internet. Thankfully, Facebook will do the thinking for us by adding a "Satire" tag to online articles that end up on people's News Feeds.
If you didn't detect the sarcasm in the previous sentence, then this feature is for you.
First, a public service announcement. The Onion, which publishes headlines such as "Museum Proudly Exhibits Picasso Shitty Enough To Be In Kansas City" and "Tips for Being an Unarmed Black Teen," is a parody news site. Parody means it's fake, as in to get a laugh. We're making it clear because Facebook doesn't seem to think you have the processing power in your head to know that.
If you've ever expressed an inappropriate amount of anger or disgust over an Onion article, know that you are not alone. There are actually websites dedicated for people who get angry over imaginary comments from President Obama, aside from Fox News. The most famous of which is "Literally Unbelievable," which compiles stupid Facebook posts from stupid Facebook people.
Now, there might be less of those hilarious moments with the website's new auto-tagging feature, which targets articles from the Onion and other parody news websites. According to Ars Technica, the feature kicks in once a user clicks on an Onion article. Once you're done reading, Facebook will display three related articles under the link you clicked on. If the article you read came from The Onion, the stories designated as "related articles" will likely start with the work "satire."
"We are running a small test which shows the text '[Satire]' in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed. This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units," a Facebook representative said.
The Onion has responded to Facebook's new feature by posting a breaking news story on its website. The article, with the headline "Area Facebook User Incredibly Stupid," detailed the struggles of a confused Facebook user named Michael Huffman.
"'I like looking at things on Facebook, but I don't understand a lot. Help please.' At press time, someone had reportedly fixed everything for the goddamn imbecile."
