Facebook Will Now Be Showing Publisher Logos Next To Articles In Trending And Search

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As part of its efforts against fake news, Facebook wants people to trust in the sources of news articles that it surfaces for them in Trending and Search. So it’s starting to show publisher logos next to the articles.

The addition of publisher logos next to articles surfaced in Trending and Search is rolling out more broadly and will now be available to all publishers. Facebook says the feature is exclusive to articles in Trending and Search at the moment, but that

[quote]the eventual goal is to extend these to all places where people consume news on our platform.[/quote]

Starting this week, publishers will be able to upload several versions of their logos in their Brand Asset Library, so that they can appear next to the content they produce, publish, and distribute on Facebook.

The new feature comes as part of Facebook’s Journalism Project and was developed in “close collaboration with a number of partners.

According to Andrew Anker, Product Manager at Facebook, the motive behind the new feature is to enhance “people’s awareness of the sources of content they read on Facebook.” Anker quotes a study by Pew Research Center, showing that people may find it hard to associate a link to a particular source. The study found that in fact only 56% seem to be able to “recall the source of a new link viewed on social sites.”

By surfacing logos next to article links, Facebook can build trust for publishers.

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Facebook hopes that by adding logos next to article links, it can “make it easier for publishers to extend their brand identity on Facebook” and “enhance people’s awareness of the source of content they see.” Apart from building trust, this will also give them a better idea of what they’d like to read and/or share.

Publishers who upload their logos in the new Brand Asset Library will now be able to see their logos appearing next to articles in all Trending surfaces on desktop and mobile,