Facebook just launched an educational campaign to help users spot and report fake news. It will be featured for three days on people’s news feeds and will be promoted in 14 countries including the UK, the US, Germany and the Philippines.

It will give users a list of 10 tips to spot fake news stories and prevent them from spreading. But it will only be available for three days on people news feeds and needs to be clicked on in order to appear completely.

The efficiency of this tool is therefore debatable. It appears that this campaign is only an ethical stratagem to let cooler heads prevails after the past months fake news controversy. Moreover the device is still nowhere to be found on the social media platform.

The reactions on the matter are mixed. Even if Facebook is taking a step on the right direction to fight the rise of fake news online, it seems to be too little too late and the usefulness of the device is still to be proven.

Another question rose from the debate: why did Zuckerberg finally decided to take a stand now, after ignoring the fake news problems for so long? There are many speculations on the questions; some people think it’s for ethical reasons, others found some political reasons behind his statement.

Students at Westminster university investigated and collected  the opinion on the matter from students and academics in their university.

“It is a way for Facebook to take a political stand mainly towards the Trump administration.” Edmundo Bracho-Polanco, lecturer.

“the 10 main points “how to deconstruct fake news” looks a bit a bit patronising” Anastasia Denisova, lecturer in journalism.