Popular social media platform, Facebook, is testing a major change in terms of how the news feed works. This social media site is looking at creating two new sets of news feeds. The primary field will have original content from friends and adverts while the secondary field focuses on the promoted content.
This test is being carried forward in six countries including Bolivia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Serbia, Slovakia and Sri Lanka and it will likely go on for months. This change could mean that people will have a smaller connection to the news on their stories. News has always been a tricky issue with Facebook as the authenticity of the news raises strong concerns.
While the two feeds are going to be separate, it should be noted that paid promotions are not going to be affected by this change. However, the change does affect the promotions of pages that are not paying Facebook for advertising. Through this change, Facebook aims at replacing original content with paid content, giving users more time to browse. This test has already affected website traffic for smaller media outlets.
If the change is replicated globally, a lot of small businesses could be drastically affected. Through this change, a lot of these businesses will be looking at putting in more money for advertising than they generally do for their business. The current change is being tested in these six countries and if the results of the test are positive, Facebook might make the change permanent. However, in a recent statement pertaining to the issue, Facebook said they are currently not looking at expanding this strategy.