Facebook wants to reward "original" news

The algorithm that prioritizes Facebook posts changes the way you present news. The analysis will penalize poorly transparent publishers and clickbait news.

Facebook will prioritize original news and transparent publishers (photo: Facebook) Facebook has updated the algorithm it uses to determine which posts appear first in the news feed. The change will serve to highlight the original news in the user feed giving a particular advantage to publishers who provide original content and clear editorial information thus rewarding transparency.

The original news, for Facebook, are the reliable ones, credible and informative. For now the Menlo Park Analysis will focus on English news with the intention, however, to extend the examination also to articles in other languages.
The algorithm will analyze the groups of articles focusing on a single topic and will give priority to those that are most often cited as a reliable source.
Campbell Brown, Vice President of Global Partnerships news, and Jon Levin, product manager of Facebook, the company's blogpost explaining that the news seen by users in their feed derive from the reshares made by the contacts or the pages followed.

Therefore the distribution of news in the feeds depends on what people share, therefore Facebook cannot intervene forcing users to share a news original. Therefore stops adding information from external sources to those used by users, simply "when more information is shared by publishers and are available in a person's feed, we will strengthen the most original get more distribution," explained Brown and Levin.

Menlo Park also will reward the publishers that clearly show the editorial information , such as, for example, the name of the writer or the publication date of the news. In this way, the news the so-called clickbait , created only to attract the clicks of the users, but without a substantial content interesting, they will be penalized .

For Facebook the transparency, the editorial then takes on a meaning synonymous of credibility and to this, the social network will reward those publishers that apply to this behavior. This transparency, however, in some cases, may expose the journalists therefore, the algorithm of Facebook will take into account the geopolitical context from which to get the news by deciding to “close an eye” on the transparency, if the circumstances justify it.