Facebook is making major changes to its News Feed so that users can see more content that family and friends share instead of a high amount of content from pages or celebrities.
The company’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the changes in a sweeping Facebook post on Thursday, saying it was the first in a series of changes in the design of the world’s largest social network.
Facebook has already started changing the way it filters posts and videos on its centerpiece News Feed to prioritize content from friends and family of the user.
For example, a family video clip posted by a spouse will be deemed more worthy of attention than a snippet from a star or favorite restaurant.
Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday that Facebook has started changing the way it filters posts and videos on its centerpiece News Feed to prioritize content from friends and family
‘As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media,’ Zuckerberg said in a post at his Facebook page.
‘And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard – it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.’
The company has for years prioritized material that its complex computer algorithms think people will engage with through comments, ‘likes’ or other ways of showing interest.
Zuckerberg said that would no longer be the goal.
‘I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions,’ Zuckerberg said.
The shift was likely to mean that the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement would go down in the short term, but Zuckerberg said it would be better for users and for the business over the long term.
John Hegeman, a Facebook vice president, said that advertising on the social network would be unaffected by the changes.
Facebook and its social media competitors have been inundated by criticism that their products reinforce users’ views on social and political issues and lead to addictive viewing habits, raising questions about possible regulation and the businesses’ long-term viability.
The company’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the changes in a sweeping Facebook post
The company has for years prioritized material that its complex computer algorithms think people will engage with through comments, ‘likes’ or other ways of showing interest
The company has been criticized for algorithms that may have prioritized misleading news and misinformation in people’s feeds, influencing the 2016 American presidential election, as well as political discourse in many countries.
Last year, Facebook disclosed that Russian agents had used the network to spread inflammatory posts to polarize the American electorate.
Congress is expected to hold more hearings this month, questioning the role social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube play in spreading propaganda.
Zuckerberg said an overhaul of the company’s products, beginning with changes to the algorithms that control the News Feed, would help to address those concerns. Similar changes will be made to other products in the coming months, he said.
‘We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being,’ Zuckerberg said.
With more than 2 billion monthly users, Facebook is the world’s largest social media network. It is also among the world’s largest corporations, reporting $36 billion in revenue, mostly from advertising, during the 12 months that ended on September 30.
A shift away from non-ad content produced by businesses is a potentially severe blow to news organizations, many of which use Facebook to drive readership, but Zuckerberg said many such posts have been unhealthy.
‘Some news helps start conversations on important issues. But too often today, watching video, reading news or getting a page update is just a passive experience,’ he wrote.