Facebook is bringing in ranking updates to fight clickbait in health-related content. Facebook has updated its news feed algorithm to reduce the reach of posts making sensational or exaggerated health claims. Facebook is also reducing the reach of posts promoting products or services related to those health claims.
The social networking platform said has made two ranking updates to reduce posts with exaggerated or sensational health claims and posts attempting to sell products or services based on health-related claims. “For the first update, we consider if a post about health exaggerates or misleads — for example, making a sensational claim about a miracle cure,” Facebook said in a blog post late Tuesday.
“For the second update, we consider if a post promotes a product or service based on a health-related claim a” for example, promoting a medication or pill claiming to help you lose weight,” it added. Facebook is handling such health posts in a similar way it has claimed to previously reduce low-quality content like click-bait. “We identify phrases that were commonly used in these posts to predict which posts might include sensational health claims or promotion of products with health-related claims, and then showing these lower in News Feed,” said the company.
Both of these updates were rolled out last month.
“People come together on Facebook to talk about, advocate for, and connect around things like nutrition, fitness and health issues. But in order to help people get accurate health information and the support they need, it’s imperative that we minimize health content that is sensational or misleading.”
According to Facebook, most Pages won’t see any significant changes to their distribution in News Feed as a result of this update. “Posts with sensational health claims or solicitation using health-related claims will have reduced distribution,” it added.