Facebook has added a “Why am I seeing this post?” feature to its News Feeds, to give users information concerning why a post appeared in their News Feed, alongside personalization control links. This aims to give users insight into how Facebooks News Feed algorithm works.
Facebook says users will be able to access “Why am I seeing this post?” as a dropdown menu in the right-hand corner of posts from friends, Pages and Groups in their News Feed that displays information about how its algorithm decided to rank the post, including:
Why you’re seeing a certain post in your News Feed; for example, if the post is from a friend you made, a Group you joined, or a Page you followed.
See also: Instagram Integrates Checkout Feature in its Platform
What information generally has the largest influence over the order of posts, including:
(a) how often you interact with posts from people, Pages or Groups;
(b) how often you interact with a specific type of post, for example, videos, photos or links; and
(c) the popularity of the posts shared by the people, Pages and Groups you follow.
The same menu also includes; links to personalization options, including See First, Unfollow, News Feed Preferences and Privacy Shortcuts.
The company’s blog post said “during our research on ‘Why am I seeing this post?’ people told us that transparency into News Feed algorithms wasn’t enough without corresponding controls.”
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