Facebook Says It Wants 'High Quality' News

02/09/2018 - 10h24

Facebook stated, on Thursday (8), that the changes to its algorithm are "decisive movements to ensure the news people see are informative and high quality."

Their positioning was a response to Folha's decision of no longer updating its Facebook page. The measure caught the attention of large media outlets such as "The Guardian", "The Wall Street Journal" and Bloomberg.

"We are committed to building a well-informed community, and we will continue working with Latin American communication outlets so that they may use our platform to connect with their readers in a relevant manner", stated Facebook in a release to the U.S. press.

The distribution of "fake news" by Facebook during the U.S. presidential dispute in 2016, which elected Donald Trump, brought the platform into the spotlight of political debate. Without being able to provide a reasonable solution, the social network decided, in January, to reduce the reach of communication outlet pages, among others.

An analysis by Folha based on 21 pages which post "fake news" and 51 of professional journalism showed that the average rate of interactions in the first group has increased by 61.6% between October 2017 and January 2018. The second group showed a 17% reduction.

The British newspaper "The Guardian" pointed out that Folha's decision of leaving Facebook occurs at a time of growing concern regarding the spread of fake news during the election period in Brazil.

"The Wall Street Journal" said that Folha's decision is among one of the most visible responses to the change in Facebook's news feed. It added that this has occurred in one of the most important countries for the company: Facebook has more than 122 million monthly active users in Brazil.

Folha is the largest Brazilian newspaper in the social network website, it has 5.95 million followers.

Translated by ANA BEATRIZ DEMARIA

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	Justin TALLIS/AFP PHOTO
	A Facebook logo is pictured on a screen, in central London