Was a new application named "Facebook Courts" launched to organise trials via social media, letting Facebook users be the jury and court group page administrators acting as judges? No, that was a satirical story invented by a site that regularily makes up funny but untrue stories, the application is not real and doesn't actually exist.
The story came from an article on the Waterford Whispers News published on April 17, 2018 titled "'Facebook Courts' Application Launched For Trials By Social Media" (archived here) which opened:
DUE TO an increasing number of unregulated trials by social media over the past decade, which has seen millions of people convicted for crimes they may or may not have committed, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of a brand new feature on the world's biggest platform, Facebook Courts.
Much like a group page, Facebook Courts allow communities to launch their very own legal cases online, while being allowed to appoint up to 30,000 users as the jury, while the administrators of the court group page will act as the Judge.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail might have mistaken the story for real news:
'Facebook Courts' Application Launched For Trials By Social Media
DUE TO an increasing number of unregulated trials by social media over the past decade, which has seen millions of people convicted for crimes they may or may not have committed, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced ...
But the site Whaterford Whispers News has a disclaimer page which reads:
Disclaimer
Waterford Whispers News is a fabricated satirical newspaper and comedy website published by Waterford Whispers News.Waterford Whispers News uses invented names in all its stories, except in cases when public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental.
For that reason alone you should probably never believe anything they publish.
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