Facebook cracks down on fake news, updates algo to reduce spam in News Feed

Working to improve user's experience by showing more informative stories: Vice President, News Feed

In yet another move to cut down on low-quality content and fake news in News Feed, Facebook is updating its algorithm again to remove such content from its platform.

A Facebook research found that there is a tiny group of people who routinely share vast amounts of public posts per day, effectively spamming people's feeds.

"Our research further shows that the links they share tend to include low-quality content such as clickbait, sensationalism, and misinformation," said Adam Mosseri, Vice President, News Feed, in a blog post late on Friday.

"We are making an update to help reduce low-quality links in News Feed. We are always working to improve people's experience in News Feed by showing more stories that we think people will find informative and entertaining," Mosseri added.

Facebook has been working to improve people's experience in News Feed by showing more stories that it thinks they will find informative and entertaining.

"As a result, we want to reduce the influence of these spammers and deprioritise the links they share more frequently than regular sharers," the post added.

The new update is part of Facebook's efforts to tackle fake news in News Feed.

"This update will only apply to links, such as an individual article, not to domains, Pages, videos, photos, check-ins or status updates," the post said.

Most publishers won't see any significant changes to their distribution in News Feed after this update.

"Publishers that get meaningful distribution from people who routinely share vast amounts of public posts per day may see a reduction in the distribution of those specific links," Mosseri said.

"Publishers should keep in mind basic guideposts to reach their audience on Facebook and continue to post stories that are relevant to their audiences and that their readers find informative," he added.