The Big Picture: Fashionable subjects occupy valuable real estate on the social network and their removal will offer Facebook better opportunities to serve the latest news to users.
Facebook announced Friday that it was soon to remove a controversial item first introduced on the platform in 2014.
Facebook has launched Trending as a way to help people discover news topics on the social network. However, he has often been criticized for his penchant for surfacing stories based on conspiracy theories, hoaxes and other false news. Facebook has also been accused of deliberately suppressing press articles published by conservative publications, although an internal investigation has found no evidence of political bias.
In announcing his withdrawal, Alex Hardiman, head of information products at Facebook, said that through research, they learned that people found the product less and less useful over time. As such, it will be removed from Facebook next week. Products and third-party integrations that rely on the Trend API will also be removed from service, Hardiman said.
According to Hardiman, the feature was only available in five countries and accounted for less than 1.5% of clicks for news publishers.
Facebook does not abandon its mission of keeping people informed of the latest news. The social network tests a new label of "breaking news" with 80 publishers in North America, South America, India, Europe and Australia as well as a section dedicated to local news called "Today In And a new live coverage area. daily news briefs and weekly deep dives.
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