Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Communications Facebook Network Networking Social Networks The Internet News

Facebook Dumps Personalized 'Trending Topics' After Backlash (cnet.com) 40

As the company works to strengthen its reputation as a place for news and curb the spread of misinformation on the site, Facebook announced it has removed the personalized interest-based list of news topics on the right-hand side of your news feed. Now everyone in a geographic region will see the same trending topics. CNET reports: In addition to doing away with the personalized list, there are two other big changes to the trending topics section that will start rolling out today and will take place for everyone in the U.S. "in the coming weeks." First, instead of just seeing a bare-bones topic, like "Saturn" or "X-men," two things that had been trending for me, you'll see a full headline from one of the news stories about that topic. That's the headline that had always popped up when you hovered over the topic. Second, Facebook is changing the way the topics are selected. The topics had been chosen based on how many people on Facebook are engaging with it. With the new changes, Facebook will look at the number of outlets posting stories on a particular topic, and decide its inclusion based on engagement around that group of articles. "This should surface trending topics quicker, be more effective at capturing a broader range of news and events from around the world and also help ensure that topics reflect real world events being covered by multiple news outlets," Will Cathcart, vice president of product management, said in a statement.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Facebook Dumps Personalized 'Trending Topics' After Backlash

Comments Filter:
  • by randomErr ( 172078 ) <.ervin.kosch. .at. .gmail.com.> on Thursday January 26, 2017 @05:29PM (#53744827) Journal
    How about a 'Trending for you' list and a 'Trending in your region' list? Best of both worlds. I can hide which one I don't want to see.
    • I'm glad they are including the headline with the trending news item. Every time I see a celebrity's name in the trending news, I wonder to myself "Why is X in the news, did x die?" Better to be able to glance at it instead of having to hover.
    • by WarJolt ( 990309 )

      How about a 'Trending for you' list and a 'Trending in your region' list? Best of both worlds. I can hide which one I don't want to see.

      Exactly. If I want to opt-in to fake news, why can't I have both?

      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        Why should you get a choice, in the world of corporate invasions of privacy and corporate controlled flow of information, you'll get what you bloody told to get and shut the fuck up about it. I want through that whole laborious process of clearing and deleting my Facebook account many years ago and glad I did. I'll get my news from whom I choose and not have a corporation only choose the news provided by other corporate propaganda cartels. So fuck fake news, like the ass hats at Google delivered to me, pseu

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Never used Facebook, never will.

  • by Tempest_2084 ( 605915 ) on Thursday January 26, 2017 @05:34PM (#53744865)
    I've been using Facebook Purity for months now. It has a feature that allows you to hide the entire Trending Topics box. I had to install it for sanity's sake during the election to filter certain words (I had hard core friends on both sides of the political spectrum), but I kept it active to hide the dumb crap Facebook keeps foisting on me like Trending Topics, Suggested Posts, 5000 different game requests, etc. It has made using Facebook a lot less painful, I highly suggest it.
  • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) on Thursday January 26, 2017 @06:06PM (#53745083)

    and also help ensure that topics reflect real world events being covered by multiple news outlets

    Since most mainstream news outlets have a pretty strong liberal bias, this will also have the practical effect of burying stories with a conservative bent and highlighting those with a liberal bent (even when the liberal stories are dubious or "fake news," like with the infamous "golden showers" [vanityfair.com] story).

    • (even when the liberal stories are dubious or "fake news," like with the infamous golden showers

      Most (if not all of the real) news organizations did cite the fact that it was an unconfirmed report.

      I just think people need to understand that they need to get their news from more than one source, with more than one viewpoint in those sources. Facebook should not be anyone's only method of getting news.

      • Citing the fact that it was an unconfirmed report in the middle of an article does nothing when all the people on Facebook see is a trending topic and a headline. Do you really think that they are going to go read the article to see that it's unconfirmed?

        • Very few people even read the fake document as well. It outlined HRC as having been "kompromat" for many years.
      • by mjwx ( 966435 )

        (even when the liberal stories are dubious or "fake news," like with the infamous golden showers

        Dont cite what actually happened, that disrupts his world view that all news he doesn't agree with is lying to him.

        Most (if not all of the real) news organizations did cite the fact that it was an unconfirmed report.

        I just think people need to understand that they need to get their news from more than one source, with more than one viewpoint in those sources. Facebook should not be anyone's only method of getting news.

        First off, I overwhelmingly agree. I don't trust anything unless I can verify it. I mean correctly verify it, not just a copy/paste job from various news agencies citing the same sources.

        But here's the problem. Not only are people lazy, they also want to be comforted and have their biases confirmed. They dont want their views to be challenged.

        This is how organisations like Brietbart and Fox N

    • by Anonymous Coward

      "most mainstream news outlets have a pretty strong liberal bias" compared to far right propaganda "news" that's fucking this country up and led to 25% of registered voters voting in an unqualified, narcissistic, authoritarian product of the same propaganda news.

      Be honest, you do not give a shit about truth, you just want your team to win (or to drink liberal tears or see them disappear from the face of the earth and have a far right nationalist country that crushes all opposition) and that means fighting an

    • by mvdwege ( 243851 )

      On the other hand, since the right has no shortage of 'news' sites that do nothing but parrot the latest outrage, why do you think that this will turn Facebook's feed liberal?

  • There isn't a single person, company, or product that is indispensable. All can be replaced.
  • I removed mine long ago with Facebook Purity http://www.fbpurity.com/ [fbpurity.com]
  • I want to absolutely, completely, utterly expunge from my FaceBook feed any and all references to (1) Trump (2) Sports (3) Celebrity gossip. This crap is an absolute flood, making any friends and family news impossible to find buried in the bottom of the garbage dump. (Yes, I know, but I'll get my news from an actual news source, thank you; anything on Facebook that mentions Trump is just two armed camps shrieking obscenities at each other, with zero actual information content.)

Math is like love -- a simple idea but it can get complicated. -- R. Drabek

Working...