After scandals and controversies brought on by Facebook’s News Feed over the last few years, the company recently started to team up with fact-check agencies and limit the audience of some profiles and pages. Now, the company plans to lower News Feed’s political volume.
According to a report by Axios, Facebook plans to announce that it will “de-emphasize political posts and current events content in the News Feed based on negative user feedback.” The company “also plans to expand tests to limit the amount of political content that people see in their News Feeds to more countries outside of the US.”
If that’s the case, this could reduce traffic to some news publishers, particularly companies that post a lot of political content but also transform who the social network is used on political campaigns in countries around the globe.
The publication says these tests will begin in several new countries, including Costa Rica, Sweden, Spain, and Ireland.
In February, Facebook had already announced that it would reduce political content in News Feed in the US, Canada, Brazil, and Indonesia. The company also said it would stop providing recommendations for users to join civic and political groups.
According to Axios, users appreciated this move. With that, it’s only a matter of time until Facebook starts to roll out officially these changes to more countries. The company plans a gradual transition so it won’t catch too many political and news publishers off guard.
Apart from that, Facebook is planning other major changes for its platforms. For example, yesterday, the company announced that everybody will need to share their birthday information on Instagram so it can better protect people under 18.
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