Facebook cracks down on 'Like-baiting'

Facebook pages that explicitly ask News Feed readers to 'Like' their posts will be demoted in Facebook's ranking

 

Facebook has announced that it will penalise organisations that explicitly ask News Feed readers to like, comment or share a post, claiming that it undermines Facebook's ability to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time.

The practice, known as 'Like-baiting', can help posts to get additional distribution beyond what the they would normally receive, because the more responses a post receives, the higher up it will appear in News Feed.

However, research by Facebook has revealed that like-baiting stories are, on average, 15 per cent less relevant than other stories with a comparable number of likes, comments and shares.

"Over time, these stories lead to a less enjoyable experience of Facebook since they drown out content from friends and Pages that people really care about," said Facebook software engineer Erich Owens and product manager Chris Turitzin in a blog post.

"The improvement we are making today better detects these stories and helps ensure that they are not shown more prominently in News Feed than more relevant stories from friends and other Pages."

Facebook added that the update will not impact Pages that are genuinely trying to encourage discussion among their fans, and focuses initially on Pages that frequently post explicitly asking for Likes, Comments and Shares.
Facebook is also cracking down on Pages that repeatedly upload the same photos and videos to Facebook, as well as spammy links that trick users into visiting websites that contains only ads.
"We’re making these changes to ensure that feed spam content does not drown out the content that people really want to see on Facebook from the friends and Pages they care about."