Facebook to End News Feed Experiment in 6 Countries That Magnified Fake News
- 6 years ago
Facebook to End News Feed Experiment in 6 Countries That Magnified Fake News
Stuart White, editor of The Phnom Penh Post, an English-language newspaper in Cambodia, said traffic from Facebook to his site had plummeted because of the changes to Facebook’s main News Feed — the scrolling stream of content
that greets people when they log into the social network.
"We also received feedback that we made it harder for people in the test countries to access important information, and
that we didn’t communicate the test clearly." Facebook and other social media companies are grappling with their role in spreading false information propagated by Russians ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
By SHEERA FRENKELMARCH 1, 2018
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook said on Thursday that it would end an experiment in six countries
that separated posts from news sites and publishers from other material on the social network.
Facebook has announced a series of changes to its News Feed as it looks to increase "meaningful interaction" on its site by drawing attention to content from family
and friends while de-emphasizing content from brands and publishers.
Facebook stopped short of acknowledging that the changes made in the experiment, called Explore, contributed to
that increase in misinformation, but the company said it could have done a better job communicating with publishers about what was happening.
News organizations in the countries — Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bolivia, Guatemala and Serbia — had said they were blindsided by the Facebook experiment when it began in October and complained
that it had led to a surprising rise in misinformation.
Stuart White, editor of The Phnom Penh Post, an English-language newspaper in Cambodia, said traffic from Facebook to his site had plummeted because of the changes to Facebook’s main News Feed — the scrolling stream of content
that greets people when they log into the social network.
"We also received feedback that we made it harder for people in the test countries to access important information, and
that we didn’t communicate the test clearly." Facebook and other social media companies are grappling with their role in spreading false information propagated by Russians ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
By SHEERA FRENKELMARCH 1, 2018
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook said on Thursday that it would end an experiment in six countries
that separated posts from news sites and publishers from other material on the social network.
Facebook has announced a series of changes to its News Feed as it looks to increase "meaningful interaction" on its site by drawing attention to content from family
and friends while de-emphasizing content from brands and publishers.
Facebook stopped short of acknowledging that the changes made in the experiment, called Explore, contributed to
that increase in misinformation, but the company said it could have done a better job communicating with publishers about what was happening.
News organizations in the countries — Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bolivia, Guatemala and Serbia — had said they were blindsided by the Facebook experiment when it began in October and complained
that it had led to a surprising rise in misinformation.