Facebook is testing a new feature that warns users of satirical content posted from sites like the Onion.

Stories posted in users’ feeds are being tagged as “[Satire]” in an apparent move to prevent them being mistaken for real news stories.

Satirical stories have provoked confusion and angry comments from some social media users.

Facebook told that feedback from users has highlighted the need for the feature.

“We are running a small test which shows the text ‘[Satire]’ in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed,” a Facebook spokesman said in a statement.

“This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units.”

It is not clear how many satirical sites will have their content tagged in this way, or whether the trial will be rolled out permanently across the site.