If you know it’s wrong, do you point it out with the correct reference and facts? If not publicly on FB, do you PM them? Or do you just let it go? Does it depend on how much you value the friendship, or does that even come into play?
I had a cousin who posted something on his page many years back that was flat out wrong, but he desperately wanted it to be true so it could support his anti-Obama stance. I sent him a PM with the link to Snopes debunking his post. He took it down, but never responded back to me. I have spent fewer than 48 hours with him in close to 60 years, so it didn’t upset me that he didn’t acknowledge the discrete way I handled it. I did later unfriend his wife after she made racist remarks about Michelle Obama. Life’s too short to let that kind of garbage into your FB feed, even from relatives.
I think it just depends if the incorrect fact strikes a nerve with me. I’ve pm’d and I’ve publicly posted too. Sometimes I just unfollow people who consistently post misleading information. I choose a public correction if the target audience of the original post needs to be informed :))
For an incorrect fact, I would PM the person. You wouldn’t want to publicly embarrass a friend.
For a political opinion, I’d ignore it or hit the “I don’t want to see more posts like this” option.
Most of what I run into is some story political or otherwise that can be checked out fairly easily. I just comment–check this out on snopes.
I ran into one facebook link that was to a history of nursing uniforms. The article if you clicked was really a history of the evolution of the uniform which was fine. But the provacative caption with the picture to get you there was “Look at what nurses were FORCED (my caps) to wear!” (and I know the person posting it had political intent). My comment was that nurses EARNED their uniform (and caps) which is a far cry from being “forced” to wear them.
Just ignore it…it’s FB.
I think you mean “cites” not sites.
This is a tough one. I don’t spend as much time on FB as I used to. It is another arms race on who can post the most stuff proving how much fun they are having and/or out do each other at attention whoring and that gets old after awhile. The politics that inevitably seeps into FB is more good than bad because I think people of all ages and maturity levels should talk about politics, including here, it is a shame the board for that was discontinued, and let’s face it FB is where people gather.
I defriended one guy for a variety of reasons but sort of miss his extreme left liberal rants.
My other problem on FB is on the opposite side of the isle. She is the wife of a friend I had as a kid. In other words, her now husband was one of my neighborhood friends when I was growing up. I haven’t seen him in 20 years but the last time I saw him he was extremely kind to me and we have had some really nice FB exchanges over the last few years about our neighborhood and all the things we did as kids growing up that a few others from that neighborhood chime in on. I value all that. It is nice to see how he turned out.
The problem is his wife, who I have never met, stalks FB like a hawk and posts the most vile, disgusting, one sided, hard right crapola you have ever seen on other people’s FB walls no matter how innocent the starting post was she turns it into all out war and over the top hatred and hate fueled nonsense. It is really weird. I feel bad for her kids because they are in a household with some serious hate. The things she has said about the political party she doesn’t like and Obama are tin hat crazy and no one has time to correct all that. How she has time, within seconds, to pounce on anything anyone says that she doesn’t like is beyond weird it is creepy.
How do I deal with it? I don’t. I’ve thought about defriending him but as of right now I ignore her hate filled routines. She has a lot in common with one of my uncles who hates everything from Hollywood to Obama and who I avoid like the plague even though he sends me dozens of emails a week to educate me on how bad liberals are.
Part of me says there comes a point where it is intolerable and damn the consequences. My Uncle once asked me, in complete seriousness, if I thought we should bomb Hollywood. No. I don’t we think should. Please get the hell out of my face with that you crazy freak show. So far I’ve managed not to say that.
If it’s strictly political, just ignore it. Nothing you say or site will change the poster’s mind.
But if it’s one of those “scare the you know what out of you”, like a post claiming a certain action of yours could result in loss of life/identity/or material goods, I’ve seen people reply with a link to Snopes to refute the claim.
Ditto exactly what FlyMeToThe Moon said. I often post Snopes. I don’t understand why people don’t fact check before posting stupid stuff.
I have a friend who tends to cite erroneous medical info before confirming it and it totally irks me. Her husband is a physician so her posts may be taken more seriously by her FB friends. She reposted info on bananas being injected with harmful substances - a form of fruit chemical warfare. Really?? I immediately went to Snopes (yes, it was debunked) and shared the link as a response to her post.
I usually ignore the political posts but there are some that are just so wrong that I have to respond. When an FB friend posted that a popular coffee chain was ignoring veterans, I posted a link to an article from 3 years ago about a program targeted at hiring 10k people in this demographic group.
There are posts that are honest mistakes, such as the banana post, then there are intentionally misleading posts that I will not tolerate and will comment right away (if I can cite info).
It doesn’t happen to me often since I delete all political posts. Other than political comments, I don’t see many wrong cites. If it is important, I would rebuke publicly. Otherwise, I’d ignore.
I agree with Tatin…and largely ignore such comments particularly if political in nature. I did make a comment politely to a friend recently. It wasn’t really a correction of misinformation , but pointing out how a certain act from the previous POTUS affected our family and business. It ended up shutting down future comments which wasn’t my intention. I was very restrained too
If you “unfollow” someone (vs. unfriending them), you will no longer get their posts on your feed. You would have to intentionally go to that person’s page to see her posts. I unfollowed a relative because she posts constantly, and most of it is hateful, judgmental, right wing political stuff. Her posts are also of the extreme right Christian slant as well, and I don’t have any desire to read that every 10 minutes. I wonder if @GoNoles85 knows my relative!
I would publicly correct it on FB to stop the falsehood from spreading. I understand that people want to only hear information (right or wrong, factual or not) that reinforces their own beliefs but I am a stickler for facts. the truth will set you free as they say. To me allowing the falsehood would be complicit.
I’ve gone back & forth on this…mostly as my rage ebbs & flows since the election 
but here’s what i do now…if i have firm data/stats to back me up, I put that data (with no editorial commentary around it) and leave it at that. If I have no data to back me up, I say nothing. For example, an FB relative was posting very scary things about how big cities are very dangerous & getting more so. I live in a big city so i just embedded this new FBI chart into my reply…after that, no problem. https://www.statista.com/statistics/191219/reported-violent-crime-rate-in-the-usa-since-1990/
If a friend of mine posts a meme that seems unlikely to me I check Snopes, and if it has been debunked I just respond with the Snopes link. My friends do not deliberately spread falsehoods.
Some friends of friends on the other hand… :-&
I’ve unfollow a few friends on FB. Not so much for misinformation but for too numerous posting. I could never get to other people’s post on the first page.
If a friend posts everyday I stop following. That’s just too much especially when all they are doing is re-posting political articles, cat videos, screeds about their hobby horse issues and the like. Their Facebook page can be whatever they want but I don’t want to see it everyday on my News Feed.
Facebook originated as a way to keep up with friends. What is happening in THEIR lives. Not all this other rubbish. Imagine if (pre-FB) you kept getting letters from a friend filled with newspaper articles, ads, fliers for various causes and nothing else. That seems to be what FB has become.
I choose to keep my Facebook page free of all that.
I practice my DGAF mentality . . . 
@TatinG “Imagine if (pre-FB) you kept getting letters from a friend filled with newspaper articles, ads, fliers for various causes and nothing else. That seems to be what FB has become.”
So true. I am amused at how many FB friends think they are political experts (even the ones who used to claim they hated political posts!). If I want to read political commentary, believe me FB is not the place I go!
So many people are being unfollowed. Too bad people have no idea. Maybe people would behave themselves better if FB let them know when they are being unfollowed (not revealing the identities of the FB friends who unfollowed them, of course). Ha!