Back in January of 2021, something unthinkable happened – Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg decided that he would be cutting political content from Facebook. After years of debate and amid the wake of the Capital Riots, Mark finally had it and decided to bring the hammer down. He said on a January 27th Facebook earnings call:
“One of the top pieces of feedback we’re hearing from our community right now is that people don’t want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services.”
Political content had become so divisive that Zuckerberg directed the full might of his engineers to effectively cut out political content from people’s News Feeds, choosing instead to focus on things that made people happier, with the view of getting Facebook’s usage growth back on track.
This is a No-Politics Club
Facebook’s team actually went on ahead and did it, which might come as a surprise. In case you haven’t noticed, political content has been significantly reduced within Facebook Feeds a little over the last 12 months. It’s a bit sad because Facebook realized that its engagement didn’t really increase as a result. As it turns out, people seem to love political debates, regardless if they’re divisive or not.
These findings were revealed in a new document acquired by The Wall Street Journal, which outlines how Meta went about culling political content from its Feeds, only to then gradually put it back in. As noted by the WSJ, the demotion of political content in the app led to more negative consequences for Meta’s business. On top of that, the WSJ reports that Facebook users just didn’t like it.
The long-standing debate about this is that Facebook was benefiting from political discussions in the app – political posts spark engagement and make people more likely to comment and share on topics they’re very passionate about. This meant that Facebook became the perfect breeding ground for extreme political candidates to gain a following, such as the example during former President Donal Trump’s campaign run.
The downside here is that the toxicity generated from such interactions also pushes away a significant portion of its audience. As Zuckerberg notes, people got fed up with relatives and friends pushing their political opinions. However, Meta still needs to maintain balance, eventually deciding to alter its Feed algorithm to better promote what users say they value.
The Wrap
No platform has yet to crack the code of achieving 100% balance, but at least Facebook’s algorithm is now looking to optimize for various elements, circumventing the now-showing gaps of emotional response. You should at least take notice of Facebook’s latest algorithm shift and if it’ll line up well with your current or planned efforts on the app.
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