Facebook is launching a new test to temporarily reduce the distribution of political content in users’ News Feeds in select countries.
The social media giant is starting the test for a small number of users in Canada, Brazil and Indonesia this week. It’ll then roll out to the United States over the next few weeks.
“During these initial tests we’ll explore a variety of ways to rank political content in people’s feeds using different signals, and then decide on the approaches we’ll use going forward,” Facebook stated in a blog post.
Posts from authoritative health organizations like the World Health Organization along with government agencies will be exempt from these tests.
Facebook notes that this test doesn’t mean that it’s getting rid of political content altogether. The platform’s goal is to allow people to interact with political content, but to respect “each person’s appetite” for it at the top of their News Feed.
“Although each person’s News Feed is different, we know even a small percentage of political content can impact someone’s overall experience,” the blog post reads.
The social media giant says it wants to find a new balance of the content that users want to see in their News Feeds.
Source: Facebook