Facebook today came up with a new feature called “why am I seeing this post?” similar to the “why am I seeing this ad?” which has appeared next to advertisements since 2014. Facebook’s new feature is an effort to make it more transparent.
Facebook will finally be telling its users why posts appear in their news feeds as it seeks to ease off public concerns about the spread of fake news and its influence over billions of people’s reading habits.
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.
- 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.
“This is the first time that we’ve built information on how ranking works directly into the app,” Facebook Product Manager Ramya Sethuraman said in the blog. “You’ll be able to tap on posts and ads in news feed, get context on why they’re appearing and take action to further personalize what you see.”