Facebook Wants to Get Rid of “Spammy Content” in the Feed

Meta said today that it would start cracking down on “spammy content” on Facebook to make the platform’s algorithmic news feed more relevant. The announcement follows the recent launch of a new Friends tab in the US that only shows users updates posted by their friends.

“We’re making a number of changes this year to improve Feed, help creators break through and give people more control over how content is personalized to them,” the company explained today. Meta acknowledged that engagement bait can take multiple forms on the platform, but the end result is a poor experience for Facebook users and content creators trying to play by the rules.

“Some accounts try to game the Facebook algorithm to increase views, reach a higher follower count faster or gain unfair monetization advantages,” the company said. “While the intentions are not always malicious, the result is spammy content in Feed that crowds out authentic creator content.”

What Meta describes as “spammy content” can take the form of posts with engaging images but unrelated captions, low-quality posts with lots of hashtags, and more. Meta said that accounts sharing this kind of content will see their reach lowered and become ineligible for monetization. This will also apply to Facebook accounts created to share this kind of content over and over to create fake engagement.

Meta also plans to more aggressively downrank accounts that coordinate fake engagement in comments. The company will also be testing a new downrank button that will allow Facebook users to anonymously signal irrelevant or low-quality comments. Moreover, Meta will continue to remove fake Pages designed to inflate reach with scripted follows, as well as profiles impersonating other people.

Lastly, Facebook will start boosting posts from Facebook users who share original content and authentically engage with their audience. The company will also improve its Rights Manager tool which helps creators to protect their original content.

Meta’s latest moves to reduce spammy content on Facebook are part of a larger initiative from the company to bring back the “OG” Facebook experience. If Facebook probably stopped being cool more than a decade ago, the platform still has over 3 billion monthly active users who probably deserve better than whatever the algorithm usually shows them.