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Facebook's 'trusted' news source survey is two simple questions

It's not exactly a complex investigation of editorial integrity.

Reuters/Shailesh Andrade

When Facebook said it would rank the trustworthiness of sources in your News Feed based on community feedback, it raised questions as to what that survey would look like. Well, we know now... and it's not terribly complicated. BuzzFeed has obtained the survey, and it's limited to the two questions Mark Zuckerberg alluded to when announcing the move: whether you recognize certain sites, and how much you trust them (from "not at all" to entirely"). No really, that's the extent of it. If you were expecting a nuanced examination of editorial integrity that helps you explain exactly what you trust, you're going to be disappointed.

The simplicity makes sense, since it's likely that Facebook would get fewer responses with an extensive questionnaire. It also means that publishers might thrive or fail based on those two questions, however, and only some people will carefully consider their choices before answering. While Facebook isn't depending solely on the surveys to decide what you see, they won't add a huge amount of subtlety to the rankings.