Facebook is handing users more say over its algorithm. TechCrunch reported on Tuesday that the platform is giving people more control over the system that ranks posts, videos and recommendations in their feeds.
Feed ranking has been one of the longest-running complaints about the service: users say the algorithm buries posts from friends and pages they chose to follow in favour of recommended content they never asked for, and until now the controls for pushing back have been scattered and hard to find.
The change fits a wider pattern across the big platforms, where regulators and users alike are pressing for recommendation systems that can be adjusted, explained and, where people want it, switched toward simple chronological order.
How much difference the new controls make will depend on how visible Facebook makes them. A setting buried three menus deep changes little; one offered at the top of the feed could shift what hundreds of millions of people see every day.
