Facebook puts friends’ photos before news

Social media website wants to see more shared posts than content promoted by businesses

FACEBOOK users will see fewer posts from businesses and brands after the company announced the biggest overhaul to its news feed for years.

Messages and photos shared by friends and families will take priority instead, the social media company announced in a “major change”.

The move is an attempt to make users more engaged with the site by having “meaningful social interactions”, the company said.

It will also limit the ability for videos and posts to go viral, which could in turn mean “fake news” will spread less easily across the website.

However, the change raises serious questions for media companies that have invested heavily in using Facebook pages to drive traffic to their websites. There are also suspicions it is a way to convince companies to buy advertising to ensure their posts are seen or an attempt to harvest more data from users.

Facebook’s share price dropped by 4 per cent yesterday at news of the change, which the company admitted would see users initially spending less time on the site.

However, Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder, said it was right for the company to focus on getting people to engage more through Facebook.

“I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions,” he wrote.

“The first changes you’ll see will be in news feed, where you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups.

“As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands and media. And the public content you see more of will be held to the same standard – it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.”

The Facebook news feed is a stream of posts, videos and photos which can be shared by family and friends but also features businesses, brands and newspapers.

Facebook faced intense criticism when “fake news” articles containing false information about candidates spread rapidly across the site during the US election in 2016.

It has since emerged that up to 126 million people may have seen material posted by Russian-linked groups between 2015 and 2017.

It is unclear exactly how the site, which boasts more than 2 billion users, will de-prioritise posts from businesses over those of loved ones.

However, a more radical plan which would have created two separate feeds – one for company posts, another for family and friends – appears not to have been adopted.

Mr Zuckerberg cited research about how users feel happier when viewing content from people they know to justify the changes.

“We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being,” he wrote.