Facebook began helping users decipher between “real” and “fake” news this year by flagging stories in their feed as possibly bogus. The idea was, a user might decide not to share a news story if Facebook flagged it as “disputed.” As it turned out, the users ignored the flag and shared those stories anyway.

The social media giant announced a new policy on Wednesday. Now, instead of a flag next to a post, a pop-up of “Related Articles” will appear underneath the news item in question and will link to Facebook’s “fact-checking” partners.

BuzzFeed posted a screenshot of the difference:

What Facebook discovered was that users were more likely to share stories that had been flagged, having the exact opposite effect they were going for. One News Feed manager Tessa Lyons said:

“Putting a strong image, like a red flag, next to an article may actually entrench deeply held beliefs — the opposite effect to what we intended. Related Articles, by contrast, are simply designed to give more context, which our research has shown is a more effective way to help people get to the facts.”

“Related articles outperformed disputed flags in giving people more information so they could understand what was true or false,” Lyons added. “Hoaxes that had related article fact checks had fewer shares than those with the disputed flag.”

After the new rollout, Facebook will be closely monitoring the new system to see if it actually does what is intended. 

Don't worry, Mark Zuckerberg will take you by the hand and show you the way.