During the 2016 US election, you might have found yourself being swayed by propaganda generated by a particular country. Hint: It rhymes with "usher".
Well, here's some sort of good news. Facebook is rolling out a tool that lets you know if you were duped by Russian propaganda. In a stark admission that Russia probably did influence the 2016 US election, amongst other events (hello Brexit), the tech giant will now tell you if you like or follow a page from a fake Russian account.
"It is important that people understand how foreign actors tried to sow division and mistrust using Facebook before and after the 2016 US election," Facebook said in a statement.
"That’s why as we have discovered information, we have continually come forward to share it publicly and have provided it to congressional investigators. And it’s also why we’re building the tool we are announcing today."
This move mostly stems around a company called the Internet Research Agency. This troll farm, based out of Russia, has created numerous fake accounts and pages to dupe people into believing farcical stories. No, I'm not typing "fake news". Wait, crap.
First Facebook said it didn't happen. Then they said it might have done. Now they're releasing an actual tool to tell you if you fell for Russian propaganda. Come on people, you can surely work this out yourselves.
The tool will be available in the Facebook Help Center, with the real-no-I'm-not-making-this-up title: "How can I see if I've liked or followed a Facebook Page or Instagram account created by the Internet Research Agency?"
Examples of such pages given by Facebook include "Being Patriotic", "Heart of Texas", and "Stop All Invaders". If those didn't blare alarms in your head beforehand then come on.
If you follow any of these pages non-ironically, please delete your account. Facebook
The tool will highlight pages or accounts people followed between January 2015 and August 2017. This also includes the friendly-sounding page "Secured Borders".
You'll only have access to the tool if you actually follow or like a Russian propaganda page. Hopefully, for most of you reading this, that doesn't apply to you.
For the rest of you, come on. Trump basically just tweeted confirmation he is humanity's greatest mistake, pushing the Star Wars prequels into second place. Do you really need Facebook's confirmation you were duped by Russian trolls?