Social network Facebook announced it is once again changing its News Feed algorithm, this time to reduce the amount of spam that can clutter your screen.
“Today we are announcing a series of improvements to News Feed to reduce stories that people frequently tell us are spammy and that they don’t want to see,” explains Software Engineer Erich Owens on the Facebook Newsroom blog. “Many of these stories are published by Pages that deliberately try and game News Feed to get more distribution than they normally would.”
Specifically, Facebook is targeting three different types of content frequently hidden and reported by its users: Like-bait content (like the photo at right), reposted content and spammy links that intentionally trick you into visiting an outside website.
Remember, each time you comment, like or share something on Facebook, the site learns a little bit more about you and the content you prefer seeing. Like-bait, reposts and spam links all pollute this system for the sake of advertising, ultimately making Facebook less enjoyable to use.
For more on avoiding Facebook spam and scams, check out our rundown of the 6 biggest Facebook frauds.
