Facebook May Tweak News Feed To Reduce Political Content

Facebook may adjust its News Feed to show users fewer political posts, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed during the company's most recent earnings call. Facebook has long faced criticism over misinformation spread on its platform, something the company has taken steps to address, but some users say it isn't enough.

It's difficult to avoid politics on Facebook, often leading users down comment threads full of arguing and bickering. There are some options for tailoring one's own News Feed to avoid certain types of posts, such as choosing to 'see less' from the menu options or, the harshest option, completely unfollowing someone who often posts things you don't want to see.

Some users are unaware of these options, however, and others may still see more political content than they want. During the most recent earnings call, Zuckerberg said that users 'don't want politics and fighting to take over their experience.' It was announced, among other things, that Facebook will stop showing political group recommendations.

Facebook originally paused political group recommendations to US users back in October in the weeks leading up to the election. Yesterday, the company revealed that this change will be permanent and will be expanded to all users globally. As recently noted by Reuters, Zuckerberg said during the call that the company is still fine-tuning 'how this works.'

It's unclear at this time what steps the company may take to reduce the number of political posts that make it into the News Feed. Likewise, questions remain about what Facebook will consider 'political' when it comes to the content that will potentially be filtered out.