Facebook NewsFeed Will Explain Why Users See Certain Posts

Facebook is reportedly introducing a new feature to its newsfeed that will explain to users why they’re seeing certain posts, which may range from interacting with an account in the past, or that the company’s algorithm is pushing the content.

The Verge reports that social media giant Facebook recently announced a new feature called “Why am I seeing this post?” which will explain the presence of certain posts on a user’s timeline. The feature was announced on Sunday as an expansion of the current options Facebook already offers towards ads. As well as explaining why users are seeing certain posts, the feature will give users the option to block seeing similar posts in the future.

The new option can be found in the drop-down menu on the top right of Facebook posts; once clicked Facebook will explain why that post showed up in the users feed. The explanation may be that the user has interacted with the author of the post in the past, or has liked similar posts causing Facebook to suggest they view this one. In some cases, the post may just be a popular one that is being shown to many users across the platform.

Included in the explanation of the post will be shortcuts to settings that allow users to control the posts they see on their newsfeed. These options include See First and Unfollow options relating to certain posts and allow for the modification of the News Feed settings in general.

Facebook is also updating its “Why am I seeing this ad?” feature; this feature already explains why an ad is being displayed to a user, often telling them that advertisers have targeted people in the same age range or location as them. But the new update will include information such as whether advertisers got their email from a mailing list or other internet source.

These new features are beginning to roll out this week and should be available to all users by the middle of May.