Thread by @Wikimedia

On @Facebook's announcement that it is adding descriptions of publishers, taken from Wikipedia entries, to shared articles.

Their announcement: newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/n…
Our statement, and a thread below: wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_rel… 1/8

We've long advised people to use Wikipedia as a first stop in their research, as we're usually good at giving you a broad-level overview of a topic. That behavior is exactly what Facebook will be facilitating. 2/8

When readers are confronted with a news article from @NPR, for example, they'll be able to learn that it's "an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPR 3/8

An article from @TheOnion, however, will note that it's a "news satire organization." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Onion 4/8

Want to learn more than the few lines given by Facebook? The Wikipedia article will often have citations to reliable sources, which can help you verify the information you're reading. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia… 5/8

We're happy to be used as one source in determining what information sources you should and should not trust. 6/8

Need more guidance? The English Wikipedia has an extensive guideline on how to determine what is and isn't reliable. 7/8

"Articles should be based on reliable, third-party, published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia… 8/8