Facebook to reduce political content in news feed for some users

Facebook will scale back ALL political content in US news feeds – including posts from family and friends – in coming weeks to ‘turn down the temperature’

  • Facebook will start scaling back all political content in its News Feed for some users over the next few months 
  • The company said on Wednesday it would temporarily reduce the political content for some users in the US, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia
  • It said the point of the trial was to explore a ‘variety of ways to rank political content in people’s feeds’ before deciding what approach to use in the future
  • The tests will extend to all political content, including posts from family and friends, political news posted by media outlets or posts from political figures
  • Content from official government agencies and services will be exempt, as well as COVID-19 information from health organizations like the CDC and WHO 
  • CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month that he wanted to ‘turn down the temperature’ of political conversations on the social networking site 
  • Facebook and other platforms have also come under fire for enabling political misinformation and manipulation, notably during election periods 

Facebook will start scaling back all political content in its News Feed for some users, including posts from people’s family and friends, as part of a trial to test ways the social media giant can rank posts on its platform. 

The company said on Wednesday it would temporarily reduce the political content for some users in Canada, Brazil and Indonesia this week and in the United States within the coming weeks. 

In a blog post, Facebook said the point of the trial was to explore a ‘variety of ways to rank political content in people’s feeds’ before deciding what approach to use in the future. 

The tests will extend to all political content, including posts from family and friends. It is not just limited to political news posted by media outlets or posts from political figures. 

It was not immediately clear how Facebook planned to classify political content as part of its test, how users would be selected or how significantly it would effect their feed.  

Facebook will start scaling back all political content in its News Feed for some users, including posts from people’s family and friends, as part of a trial to test ways the social media giant can rank posts on its platform

Content from official government agencies and services will be exempt from the tests, as well as COVID-19 information from health organizations like the CDC and WHO. 

Facebook says it is trying to get a better understanding of peoples’ tolerances for the political content they see after receiving feedback that users don’t want such posts overtaking their News Feed.

It comes after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month that he wanted to ‘turn down the temperature’ of political conversations on the social networking site because ‘people don’t want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services’.

He said at the time that Facebook will no longer recommend politics-themed groups to users and was working on ways to reduce the amount of political content served up in users’ news feeds by its automated systems. 

In the blog post on Wednesday, Facebook said: ‘It’s important to note that we’re not removing political content from Facebook altogether.

‘Our goal is to preserve the ability for people to find and interact with political content on Facebook, while respecting each person’s appetite for it at the top of their News Feed.’

As part of its tests, Facebook says they’ll survey people about their experience to determine how effective the new approaches will be. 

In a blog post, Facebook said the point of the trial was to explore a 'variety of ways to rank political content in people's feeds' before deciding what approach to use in the future

In a blog post, Facebook said the point of the trial was to explore a ‘variety of ways to rank political content in people’s feeds’ before deciding what approach to use in the future

Facebook’s announcement of the tests comes at a time when some have questioned the influence of social media platforms – especially in the wake of the US Capitol riots. 

Facebook and other platforms have also come under fire for enabling political misinformation and manipulation, notably during election periods. 

Liberals have accused Facebook of allowing hate speech and misinformation, while conservatives claim social media platforms are engaging in censorship.   

The world’s largest social network insists political content only makes up a small percentage of the content on News Feed. 

‘Based on our analyses in the US, political content only makes up about 6 percent of what people see on Facebook. 

‘And although each person’s News Feed is different, we know even a small percentage of political content can impact someone’s overall experience.

‘We’re always trying to make News Feed better, and this means finding a new balance of the content people want to see.’ 

Facebook said it would share what they learn during the trial and the ‘approaches that show the most promise’. 

The social media giant has previously made large-scale changes without such public tests, including tweaking its algorithm to prevent articles from certain news websites from appearing on its feed.   

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month that he wanted to 'turn down the temperature' of political conversations on the social networking site because 'people don't want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services'

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month that he wanted to ‘turn down the temperature’ of political conversations on the social networking site because ‘people don’t want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services’