Facebook test encourages people to read articles before sharing

Facebook has started testing a new interface feature that will prompt people to at least open a link before they share it with their network. The company says it's trying out the message to see if it promotes more informed sharing. "You're about to share this article without opening it," the prompt says. "Sharing articles without reading them may mean missing key facts." It then offers users two options. You can either open the article or repost it as normal.

If the notification looks familiar, it's because Twitter has employed a similar one since last September. Following months of testing, the company found the message largely succeeded in getting more people to read before they tweet. In some cases, Twitter said the prompt even led some people to opt not to retweet a story at all. The feature also builds on similar roadblocks Facebook has deployed in the past. Those will prompt you to reconsider before you share older articles and ones about COVID-19.