This article was published on May 10, 2017

Facebook tweaks News Feed to bury ‘low-quality’ webpages


Facebook tweaks News Feed to bury ‘low-quality’ webpages

It sucks when you click on some interesting link on Facebook, only to find it takes you to some sucky, ad-filled spam website. Now Facebook says it’s leveraging AI to bury those types of links on the News Feed.

Facebook has been punishing spammy websites that advertise on the platform since last year, but the company says it’s now doubling down on the punishment, as well as downranking spammy link posts on the News Feed itself.

Facebook says it’s used AI to analyze “hundreds of thousands” of links to identify low-quality pages with “a large number of disruptive, shocking or malicious ads.” Basically, pages that look like this:

If a post links to such a page, it will show up lower on the News Feed, and may not be eligible for ads. It’s a small change, but anything to show less spam on FB is a worthwhile move.

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Also tagged with