What just happened? Ever wonder exactly why certain posts appear above others in Facebook's News Feed? You're about to find out, thanks to a new feature that's being introduced by the company. Not only does it provide information about others' content, but it also lets users personalize what they see.
The aptly named "Why am I seeing this post?" builds on Facebook's "Why am I seeing this ad?" tool that's been around since 2014. The idea is to make the social network's News Feed algorithm more transparent, explaining why some posts are ranked higher than others.
Users can access the feature by clicking on the top right corner of a post, which will bring forth a drop-down menu. This shows why a post is there: if it's from a friend, Group, or Page. More importantly, it will also explain its position on the news feed. This involves showing statistics such as how often you've interacted with certain people/Pages/Groups, the popularity of the post compared to others with the same origin, and how often you interact with specific types of posts.
Additionally, the menu will contain shortcuts to controls where users can unfollow the poster or make sure they see their content first, as well as being able to adjust other News Feed and Privacy Preferences.
Facebook's "Why am I seeing this ad?" is also being updated. It will now reveal information such as whether the advertiser uploaded their contact lists, which can contain emails and phone numbers, and if your Facebook details were matched. It will also confirm if another marketing partner was involved in running the ad.
"Both of these updates are part of our ongoing investment in giving people more context and control across Facebook," it said.