Facebook announced yesterday that it is adding a feature called “Why am I seeing this post?”. It is something similar to “Why am I seeing this advertising?”, which appeared in 2014 alongside the ads.
Facebook's new feature features a dropdown menu which gives users information about why a post appeared in the News Feed, along with links to personalization controls.
The purpose is to give users more transparency about how the Facebook news algorithm works. This update comes as the company faces a few important events that have highlighted the weaknesses of the platform and are considered harmful. These include the role played by Facebook in spreading a video that was shot at assault on mosques of New Zealand two weeks ago.
Η Facebook's announcement says that users will have access to "Why am I seeing this post?" as a drop-down menu, in the right-hand corner of posts from Friends, Pages, and Groups, and it will display information on how the algorithm decided to rank the position of each post, including:
- Why you see a particular post in your news feed – for example, if the post is from a friend you have, a team you join or a page you follow.
- What information generally has the greatest influence on the series of posts, including: (a) how often you interact with posts, people, pages, or groups. (b) how often do you interact with a particular type of publication, for example, videos, photos or links. and (c) the popularity of the posts shared by people, Pages and Groups you follow.
The same menu will also include links to personalization options, including First See, Unfollow, News Feed Preferences and Shortcuts protectionof personal data.
