Facebook has announced a significant update to its news feed aimed at reducing the reach of pages and groups that breach its content policies. The platform has introduced a new algorithmic signal focused on determining the authority of links, which will affect the news feed reach of non-authoritative sites.
Click-Gap Signal
Although Facebook partners with organizations like the Associated Press to assess content validity, it has now introduced an automated approach. This approach analyzes inbound and outbound linking patterns to ascertain the authority of a site linked by Facebook users. The Click-Gap metric is currently being utilized.
What is the Click-Gap Signal?
The Click-Gap signal measures the link patterns of sites linked from Facebook. If the number of links from Facebook exceeds the site’s overall online link popularity, Facebook will cut down the post’s reach. This authority signal aims to limit the spread of certain articles on Facebook.
Explanation from Facebook’s announcement:
“This new signal, Click-Gap, uses a web graph concept. In this graph, domains with numerous inbound and outbound links are central, whereas those with fewer are peripheral. Click-Gap identifies domains with disproportionate outbound Facebook clicks relative to their web graph position. This indicates that a domain may be succeeding on the News Feed in a way that doesn’t mirror its authority outside the platform, often producing low-quality content.”
This process resembles statistical analysis, where typical patterns are used to detect anomalies. Though Facebook didn’t explicitly call it Statistical Analysis, the Click-Gap algorithm seems akin to it. Statistical Analysis has been a part of search engine algorithms since at least 2005, with Google announcing its use that same year.
Facebook Using Algorithms to Remove Content
Facebook will deploy algorithms to automatically remove links to low-quality content in groups, including private ones.
According to Facebook:
“…we identify and remove harmful groups, whether they are public, closed, or secret. We can now proactively detect many types of violating content posted in groups before anyone reports them and sometimes before few people, if any, even see them.”
Facebook Group Admins Required to Police User Content
Facebook’s algorithms will evaluate what posts are approved by group admins to determine if a group should be shut down. A group will be closed if an admin regularly approves content that is false, misleading, or breaches Facebook’s guidelines. This puts the responsibility of monitoring member content on the admins. Private or secret groups can be removed if admins approve misinformation or spam.
Facebook’s explanation:
“Starting in the coming weeks, when reviewing a group to decide whether or not to take it down, we will look at admin and moderator content violations in that group, including member posts they have approved, as a stronger signal that the group violates our standards.”
Facebook Clickbait Will Lose Reach
Facebook’s news feed algorithm will limit the spread of content deemed clickbait or misinformation.
From the announcement:
“There are types of content that are problematic but don’t meet the standards for removal under our Community Standards, such as misinformation and clickbait….we’re using both technology and people to fight the rise in photo and video-based misinformation…”
News Feed Reach on Facebook
It is evident that enhancing a website’s inbound and outbound linking patterns is crucial for ensuring its content circulates on Facebook. Sites with poor linking metrics will be considered inauthentic and devoid of authority, and their news feed reach will be curtailed.
Read the official announcement on Facebook.
Images by Shutterstock, Modified by Author
