Facebook is adding a ranking algorithm that identifies sensationalised, fake, misleading posts
The platform has a new way of categorising Pages that considers whether that page is posting spam or trying to game feed by doing things like asking for likes, comments or shares to determine whether a post is authentic.
It also considers if Facebook users are hiding content from a certain Page, categorising it as spam, misrepresentative, or click bait.
The algorithm then detects similar posts and then questions their authenticity. If a post is determined to be authentic by the algorithm, it’s likely to be boosted higher in the News Feed.
Like Twitter, the platform wants to boost its ability to surface breaking content in real-time. If a post topic is receiving a high level of engagement, an algorithm will bump it up in news feeds in real-time.
Facebook doesn’t anticipate a significant change to most Pages’ News-Feed distribution, but referral traffic or outbound clicks might increase or decrease depending on the authenticity and relevance of content.
This is update aims to tackle the bad press social has been suffering following both Brexit and the US Election.
This update comes following a recent update to trending topics which ensures topics are covered by a number of reputable news organisations before appearing in the Trending tab.
But will these updates be an issue for satirical sites like Wunderground and The Onion which produce fake news for comedic effect?
More importantly are we now at risk more than ever at being trapped in a social media bubble?
If you do want to read some faux news here are my favourite, but be careful sharing them your page might suffer…
