A post is doing rounds on social media, claiming that Facebook’s algorithm is limiting the number of people whose posts show up in an individual’s News Feed to just 25 or 26 people.
The post claims that if a Facebook user copy-pastes the post’s content and tags their friends on the post then they will be able to see posts from everyone instead of just ’26 friends’.
The post is shared on Facebook with a caption that reads, “I was wondering where everyone went! Thanks for the tip to circumvent Facebook… Works!! I have a whole new profile. I see posts from people I don’t see anymore. Facebook’s new algorithm picks the same people – around 25-who will see your posts. Hold your finger anywhere in this post and click ” copy “. Go to your page where it says ” what’s on your mind”. Tap your finger anywhere in the empty field. Click paste.”
Here’s the link to the above post.
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FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim and found it to be false.
We searched the web with relevant keywords to find any media reports stating what is being claimed in the viral post. But we could not find any news report corroborating the viral claim.
Although we found many articles which stated that this is a hoax message and has been on the internet since 2017.
Taking a cue from this, we found an article dated February 9, 2019, which stated that “Facebook has responded to a viral claim that you see posts from only 25 friends in your news feed.”
Digging further, we found the official statement issued by Facebook on February 6, 2019.
The statement said, “Facebook does not set a limit on the number of people whose posts are shown in your News Feed.” It also stated that the persistence of the “26 friends” myth is understandable as the posts in a user’s news feed are ranked in the order Facebook believes they’ll be most interested in seeing.”
Facebook further stated that “The News Feed algorithms prioritises posts that are predicted to spark conversations among people, whether because of format, for example, live videos tend to lead to more discussions than regular videos, or because the posts were shared by people, groups or Pages you interact with frequently.”
Thus, it is evident from the above information that the post claiming that a Facebook user would be able to circumvent the social media platform’s algorithm and avoid seeing posts from only 26 friends is FALSE.
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