As pressure mounts on firms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to do more to tackle fake news, some are taking things into their own hands.<\/p>\n
Technologist Daniel Sieradski has developed a plug-in – known as BS Detector – that flags up “questionable” websites on Facebook and Twitter.<\/p>\n
The plug-in – has appeared in dozens of news feeds, leading some to think it was an official Facebook feature.<\/p>\n
It appears Facebook is currently blocking links to the site.<\/p>\n
BS Detector is a plug-in that uses a list of fake news sources as its reference point. It can be added to Chrome and Mozilla browsers and when it spots a potentially false story, flags it with a red banner reading: “This website is considered a questionable source.”<\/p>\n
It was created, Mr Sieradski said, “in about an hour” as a “rejoinder to Mark Zuckerberg’s dubious claims that Facebook is unable to substantively address the proliferation of fake news on its platform”.<\/p>\n
It has had over 25,000 installs since launch. “I and other open source contributors have spent many more hours improving its functionality,” Mr Sieradski told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Website TechCrunch mistakenly reported that the plug-in was a new Facebook feature, leading Mr Sieradski to tweet about it.<\/p>\n