Facebook on April 11 announced a new effort to help to remove and curb users news feeds with spam stories and baiting to get more likes. The Menlo Park-based social network company announced through its Newsroom feed that it would begin to target stories on pages that manipulate content to get users to interact, whether by liking, sharing or commenting.
Facebook said users have been complaining over this sort of spam feeds that continue to trickle into their feeds on a daily basis. It added that it would be aiming to rid feeds of spam-like behavior, which it said also includes baiting, overly circulated content and spam links.
Users who are caught attempting to bait other users to like, comment or share their posts in an effort to increase their social media presence would be barred from using the site.
Facebook researchers also found that users believed that such baiting stories and spam were overall at least 15 percent less relevant than other stories with similar amounts of social interactions and page likes.
There were also a number of complaints about pages that overly shared stories or videos by posting and reposting the same material. Facebook said that they are attempting to improve on this issue by "de-emphasizing" these pages on feeds.
As for the pages that trick users into visiting an advertisement website claiming to link to a story or a photo album, Facebook's update plans to detect such links based on the number of people who visit those links and if they were sharing or liking those links on their network.
The company also said that it has tested the new update and found an overall positive response from users in its early update testing. It added that over the next few months, the spam publishers will see their content devalued and with a loss in circulation will come their way, allowing users to engage with stories that are relevant and important to them.
It comes on the heels of a new report from Facebook that details the countries who demand the largest number of content restrictions. According to the company, by detailing this information, as well as their efforts to reduce spam on the networking site, it will enhance a users' experience as well as help to promote a more open Internet.
While Facebook admitted it is unable to remove 100 percent of spam from the site, it believes that by greatly reducing the amount of spam links and accounts, it will deliver to users what they expect from the social networking site.
