Facebook is reducing the focus on politics in user feeds.

The social network Facebook has announced updates of the feed, previously having analyzed user reviews. Facebook plans to lower the amount of political content that caused the network received negative reviews. Thus, Facebook will not only be able to improve the platform and attract new users, but also influence others.

The social network will begin testing ways to restrict political content, in particular, in Costa Rica, Sweden, Spain and Ireland. The forthcoming features may reduce the attendance of some news publishers, especially companies that publish a lot of political content, experts suggest. Instead, the social network will start paying more attention to other types of user reviews, such as survey responses. Earlier this year, Facebook have already launched a test in countries such as the United States, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia, during which the number of political content in fact decreased for some users. The aforementioned restrictions do not affect the information distributed by state structures, the number of publications of local and federal health authorities concerning the spread of coronavirus will also unchanged. The social network began implementing this algorithm after the US presidential campaign in 2020, when the share of disinformation increased several times.

Although Facebook has stated that political topics account for only a small amount (6%) of the total content that users interact with, the company is continued to be criticized. An algorithm works on the principle of determining the information that causes the greatest negative reaction. Users often criticize Facebook for the algorithm. They argue that if it analyzes negative comments, will news posts that do not including political topics, suffer? Facebook often demonstrates the content to which users have left the most reviews or the controversial content. A lot of creators publish sensitive topics to reach a larger audience.

August 25, it was reported that Facebook will form its own advisory commission to determine information policy during the elections. The company will officially announce the creation of a commission in the fall in preparation for the mid-term elections of 2022. Facebook plans to implement the changes gradually. Over time, the social network will expand testing to more countries.