Facebook adds features to a user’s main news feed, including letting them limit comments to their social posts to friends or to certain people who have been tagged.
This feature is similar to the one released by Twitter last year.
Chronological Mode
Facebook will also make it easier to return to the “chronological” mode, the latest posts being shown first.
The company abandoned the model in 2009, although the option continued to be buried in the menu, preferring to use algorithms to scale the displayed content.
But on Wednesday, vice-president Nick Clegg said a lack of transparency and information available to users had led them to distrust anyone.
Feed Filter Bar
And so Facebook has moved its “most recent” option to a new “feed filter bar”, at the top of the news feed, which also allows users to prioritise posts from up to 30 friends or particular pages, a feature introduced in October last year, before reverting to algorithmic content ranking.
Despite the change, Mr Clegg, a former Deputy Prime Minister, said the quality of Facebook’s algorithmic content – as well as personalized advertising – continues to offer “many benefits to the community”.
Comparing its use of algorithms to a romantic couple in which ones does the shopping and the other cooks dinner, he said: “Content ranking is a dynamic partnership between people and algorithms.
“Your news feed is heavily influenced by your choices and actions.”
In a further bid for transparency, the news feed’s “Why am I seeing this?” links will now detail the criteria for recommended posts – from people and organisations users do not follow – such as having recently interacted with a similar post.
The new controls would be available for Android app users first, Facebook said, with an iOS update for Apple phones in the coming weeks.
