Facebook halts news feed trial after users give it thumbs-down

Facebook has ended an experiment to split its news feed into two parts after negative feedback from users.

In October the social network introduced the second feed in six test countries with the intention of creating one feed just for posts from family and friends and another for public posts and content from publishers called Explore.

However, the company’s head of news feed, Adam Mosseri, has confirmed the experiment is being ended following poor feedback from test users.

“The Explore feed was a trial response to consistent feedback we received from people over the past year who said they want to see more from friends and family in news feed,” Mr Mosseri said.

“The idea was to create a version of Facebook with two different news feeds: one as a dedicated place with posts from friends and family and another as a dedicated place for posts from pages.

“You gave us our answer: people don’t want two separate feeds. In surveys, people told us they were less satisfied with the posts they were seeing and having two separate feeds didn’t actually help them connect more with friends and family.”

The feed was being tested in Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Slovakia, Serbia, Guatemala and Cambodia.

The trial was part of a push by the social network to increase what it calls “meaningful interactions” on the platform, something chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said is a priority for the firm in 2018.

The Facebook founder said in January his personal aim for the year was to “fix” Facebook, after criticism over the site’s role in the spread of fake news and handling of abuse and extreme content.

MPs and officials in the US have questioned the site, along with other internet giants such as Google and Twitter, over their policing of such content as well as the use of their platforms to create political discourse.