Facebook continues to experiment with the visibility of political content, and announced that it will show fewer posts of this type in the News Feed. The feature isn't exactly new; The social network began testing it last February, but only in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia. The novelty is that it will now expand to other markets; specifically, Spain, Sweden, Ireland and Costa Rica .
It is clear that this option is still under test , but it would not be unusual for it to reach more countries in the coming months. Facebook ensures that it has received very positive comments in relation to its attempts to satisfy users who claim to see less political content.
Logically, such a measure requires Facebook to make changes to the indications on which it relies to promote posts. This was explained by Aastha Gupta, Director of Product Management at Facebook, in an update to the official blog:
We learned that some engagement signals can better indicate which posts people find most valuable. Based on those reactions, we are gradually expanding some tests to place less emphasis on signals such as the likelihood that someone will comment or share political content. At the same time we are putting more force on others, such as the probability that people will give us negative comments about posts on political issues and current events, when we classify them in their News Feed.
Less political content on Facebook, a problem for news sites?
Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash Reducing political content is a measure that Facebook users have been asking for for a long time. This is not related to a lack of interest on the part of the public, but to reducing the toxicity to which people are exposed .
However, reducing the visibility of political content also has consequences for the media. Facebook recognizes that the change may also affect content related to other public affairs; and even negatively impact traffic on news sites or pages dedicated to current affairs .
Anyway, the social network ensures that it is working so that the implementation is “gradual and methodical” . It is clear that, if its plan works, Facebook could (finally) reduce the levels of disinformation and make users feel comfortable with the platform again.
