Facebook changes algorithm to boost original news content

Facebook is making changes to its algorithm to boost original news content from publishers. The company has announced that it will rank news stories in its users’ News Feed to prioritise original reporting and stories with transparent authorship.

Facebook would identify articles as original reporting on a developing story by looking at groups of articles on a particular topic and identify the ones most often cited as the original source. It would then boost it in users’ News Feed. The company said that it is working with news publishers and academic experts to build signals in its algorithm to identify original news content.

In addition to this, the social media giant will review news articles for bylines or a staff page on the publisher’s website that lists the first and last names of reporters or other editorial staff. “We’ve found that publishers who do not include this information often lack credibility to readers and produce content with clickbait or ad farms,” Facebook wrote in a blog post.

In effect, nothing much will change for Facebook users as they will continue to see news stories in the News Feed from the sources that they or their friends follow. But in hindsight, it would demote news content that does not have information about the publisher’s editorial staff.

Facebook says that initially, the change in algorithm will focus on the news in English and that it would expand the same for news in other languages in future.