‘TREND’ MUST END
Facebook dropping section that spurred fake news
Facebook is reportedly putting an end to its unpopular “trending” news section. A company exec claimed the social media giant was pulling the plug on “trending” because it was outdated, according to an Associated Press report. The tool inadvertently became a launchpad for Facebook’s “fake news” problem, promoting factually challenged stories throughout its four years in existence — including Russian-generated articles aimed at swaying the 2016 presidential election that reached more than 120 million users.
The ill-fated experiment was an attempt to re-create Twitter’s popular “trending” section.
Facebook’s head of news products, Alex Hardiman, said in a statement that the social site will shift toward allowing publications to label their stories as “breaking news” when appropriate, and local news will be prioritized.
“We’re removing Trending soon to make way for future news experiences on Facebook,” Hardiman said. “However … we found that over time people didn’t continue to find it very useful or valuable. We will remove Trending from Facebook next week.”
“Trending” reportedly accounted for less than 1.5% of publisher’s clicks, Facebook said, and was available only in five countries.
The change also comes after “trending” became a topic of grievance among conservatives in 2016. Facebook was accused of skipping over Republicanleaning stories in the section and promoting more liberal content. In the same year, Facebook dropped all of its human employees in charge of “trending” and instead let software designed to cherry-pick popular and unbiased subjects take over.
The computer system promoted the stories getting the most attention, whether or not they were factual.
Nearly 80 publishers will begin testing Facebook’s “breaking” feature, Hardiman said. It will allow news sites to add a red banner to their stories to indicate that the information is new and important and to distinguish it from other postings that may appear around it.
“Breaking news has to look different than a recipe,” Hardiman told the AP.
To highlight the company’s dedication to more localized content, Facebook will also add a feature called “Today In,” displaying news from publishers in a given user’s area. Hardiman said it will help “elevate great local journalism.