Facebook to prioritise friends and family posts

Facebook is making major changes to its news feed, prioritising posts from family and friends and reducing those from media organisations, businesses and brands.

The move is an attempt to make time spent on the platform “more meaningful” for its more than two billion members, founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on the site.

News, brand and video content has “exploded” in recent years, “crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other”, according to Mr Zuckerberg.

The Facebook CEO wrote: “The research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our wellbeing. We can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with longterm measures of happiness and health.

“On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos – even if they’re entertaining or informative – may not be as good.”

The shift comes as experts warned publishers will need to wean themselves off relying on Facebook amid a steep drop in interactions on the site.

Press Association analysis of social media analytics company Newswhip revealed a huge fall in engagements for many of the UK’s biggest news websites towards the end of 2017.