Facebook has long been maligned for its ability to create a bubble around its users and the news they receive. The mechanic through which people see trending news topics has played a part in this. The algorithm based around peoples interests, until now, has contributed to a cycle whereby people only see the news based on articles and opinions that align with theirs.
The risks with this are clear. A news bubble that ends up being heavily skewed one way or another resulting in a huge bias. In a time where so many of us are getting our ‘facts’ and news from social media outlets like Facebook we’re glad to see the social network giant taking steps to remedy this.
As of January 25th 2017 the algorithm through which people see trending topics has changed. It will no longer be based around personal interests. Rather location, number of publishers for the given post and engagement around that post will decide what trends and what doesn’t. In particular, everyone in the same region (which can be read as country) will see the same topics.
The news outlets themselves can be criticised for not being impartial. Bias’ exists everywhere, making the job of discerning whats fact, opinion or sheer ‘fake news’ increasingly difficult. We’re hopeful this step will go someway to making that job at least a little easier.