Facebook users routinely receive stories in their News Feeds that are hoaxes, deceptive or malicious, The Verge reports. 

The social media company seems to have had enough of this abuse.  Facebook has announced the addition of an option where users can report a News Feed story as fake. 

Like Us on Facebook

Once a story is reported as fake, however, it won't be removed immediately.  Instead, the reported hoax story will have its distribution reduced in News Feed.

Facebook said it will use a variety of factors to determine which reported stories will receive reduced distribution.  The social network company said it will scan various data, "to spot links, photos, videos, and status updates" that have been repeatedly been reported as hoax or fake.

The number of Facebook users that have reported the story as a hoax, or who have deleted it will also be a major consideration. These factors will help Facebook justify why certain stories will suffer reduced distribution in News Feed.

Some online news and satirical publishers have expressed their apprehension they'll be affected by this new scheme. Facebook allayed these fears in its official blog pos. It said it found out that users are least likely to report funny and humorous stories as hoaxes or fake.

This new measure is intended to combat online sites that like to fool Facebook users into clicking their sites or links.  In case a fake story slips into a user's News Feed, the company will inform the user the story has been reported as a fake or has been deleted numerous times.

To be clear, Facebook will not decide if a story deserves to be removed or have its distribution reduced.  The decision is at the discretion of its users.

TagsFacebook news, Facebook Fake Stories, Facebook Hoax, Facebook news Feeds, Facebook fake Story removal, Facebook Latest News, Facebook Features, Facebook Policy