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Facebook fail Social network scraps disputed flags on fake news.
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has scrapped an effort to crack down on misinformation on the giant social network by showing "disputed" flags on articles that third-party fact checkers deemed false.

The company made the change after academic research suggested that marking a story as false, or "disputed," can backfire "and further entrench someone’s beliefs," Facebook said in a Medium post.

Too few fact checkers to keep up with the flood of potentially fabricated content, too many clicks for Facebook users to determine why content was disputed and a range of ratings from third party fact checkers that muddied the waters also contributed to the decision, Facebook said.

Instead of the flagging system, which Facebook started earlier this year, it will show related articles to give Facebook users more context.