Facebook adjusting algorithm against faux news

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Social giant Facebook has announced it is making three main changes to the algorithm it uses to display “trending” topics, in an effort to crack down on fake news stories on the site.

The issue of faux news on facebook has been making waves in recent weeks, sparking discussions among millions of users on the Internet and even President Donald Trump.

“Today we’re announcing three updates to Trending, a feature that shows people popular topics being discussed on Facebook that they might not see in their News Feed,” Will Cathcart, vice president of Facebook’s product management said.

According to Cathcart, “trending” topics will now feature a publisher’s headline to add context.

According to Facebook, this feature was the most requested from users since the last trending update last summer.

Also, an “improved system” of identifying topics will be implemented to determine what issues are popular.

Instead of relying only on what topics are popular on Facebook, this tweak will cross-reference the issues with established publishers.

Lastly, all users in the same region will see the same topics — no longer personalized for individual interest.

Those three tweaks, Facebook hopes, will cut down on the appearance of phony news stories.

“We’re listening to people’s feedback and will continue to make improvements in order to provide a valuable Trending experience,” Cathcart added.

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The social media site said the changes were initiated Wednesday and will be available to users in the coming weeks, NAN reports.

 

Posted by Juliet Ekwebelam