Facebook’s ‘Why Am I Seeing This Post’ Feature Explained

Facebook is planning to become more transparent with its users it seems, and wants to let them know how exactly its algorithms target them via new feature called ‘Why am I seeing this post?‘.

The new feature is designed to allow the users to control the posts they see in the News Feed not only from their friends but from the pages and groups they follow. According to Facebook, this is the first time the company has ‘built information on how ranking works directly into the app’.

If you want to access the feature, all you have to do is click the drop-down menu that you can find on the right upper corner of a post and you will read everything about why you’re seeing that post on the News Feed and how to manage said content.

You will be able to personalize your News Feed with more ease than ever before as well, by using options such as See First, Unfollow, News Feed Preferences and Privacy directly via shortcuts to these controls.

“During our research on “Why am I seeing this post?”, people told us that transparency into News Feed algorithms wasn’t enough without corresponding controls. People wanted to be able to take action, so we’ve made it easy to manage what you see in News Feed right from this feature.” Ramya Sethuraman, Product Manager at Facebook said “People’s feedback also helped us determine what specific information would be most valuable to highlight. For example, we’ve included examples of people’s interactions that contribute to each of the three signal categories we show in the feature. Over time, we’ll continue to get feedback on “Why am I seeing this post?” and make improvements.”

In addition to this, Facebook is also bringing some changes to ‘Why am I seeing this ad?’ tool – initially, you were able to see basic demographics or interests that might have contributed to an ad targeting you specifically. Now, Facebook will tell you which/if an advertiser uploaded your data, such as an email or phone number, to its database or if it collaborated with another partner to run the target-specific ad.

“Both of these updates are part of our ongoing investment in giving people more context and control across Facebook. We will continue to listen to your feedback and evolve these features over time.” Ramya Sethuraman went on to say.

Facebook has been making great efforts lately to become increasingly more transparent with its users and, though these features will surely make a difference, they are not necessarily a deal breaker in the grand scheme of things. Even so, it looks like Facebook is shifting its focus in the right direction, and we’re not complaining.