Facebook tries to change the algorithm. Photo by Reuters
A leaked internal Meta memo from late April reveals the plan to transform the Facebook feed with a clear goal: it looks more like TikTok. Instead of prioritizing posts from accounts people follow, Facebook’s primary feed, like TikTok, will start recommending posts regardless of where they come from.
Furthermore, according to the document, which the specialized site The Verge had access to, years after the separation of Messenger and Facebook as different applications, they would reunite, imitating TikTok’s messaging functionality.
Facebook wants to combine recommended posts with Reels. The same is already happening with Instagram and could help “reverse the app’s stagnant growth and potentially bring young people back.”
The main source is the Meta executive in charge of Facebook Tom Alison. “Alison bluntly told employees in a comment under her April note that I saw: ‘The risk for us is that we dismiss it as a form of communication and social connection that it is not valuable to people and we have not been able to evolve‘”Explains The Verge.
After receiving the memo, The Verge was able to talk to Alison about the app’s plans, in which she acknowledges that the company “It took some time to see TikTok’s competitive threat” and that Meta now “sees the video app invading its social media home territory more and more”.
In practice, Facebook’s future app will become a mix of Stories and Reels at the top, followed by posts recommending its discovery engine from both Facebook and Instagram.
The publication notes that it will be “a more visual and more video experience, with clearer directions for sending messages refer friends to a post“.
The departure of Sandberg
Former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. AFP photo
Meanwhile, the departure of Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s former COO, continues to generate noise in the company. His resignation will not lead to decisive changes in the companywhistleblower Frances Haugen told AFP on Thursday.
Haugen worked as an engineer at Facebook and leaked internal documents from the giant that uncovered Facebook’s maneuvers to use and market data. deprived of millions of people.
Sheryl Sandberg was director of operations for the social media giant and announced her resignation on June 1.
The news surprised analysts, even though Sandberg will remain in the Meta group, the parent company of Facebook.
To replace Sandberg, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg chose Javier Olivan, an executive who has so far led a special team tasked with designing the company’s growth policy.
This decision shows that Facebook “he does not listen to the fundamental criticisms addressed to himHaugen explained to the AFP.
The “growth team” led by Javier Olivan embodies “many of the things I find problematic” on Facebook, explained Haugen.
The social network is criticized for the way it has been using the personal data of its users for years, as well as for the controversy over fake content circulating through messages or respect for freedom of expression.
Before speaking into a cybersecurity debate in the French city of Lille (north), Haugen told AFP that there was always a “fundamental tension” within Facebook about the role Sandberg should play. during the 14 years in the company.
“Did he do enough to resist Mark, or did he ask Mark to be a better leader? I don’t think so,” he told AFP.
Haugen, on the other hand, is “cautiously optimistic” about the evolution of the Twitter network, the purchase of which by billionaire Elon Musk caused a sensation weeks ago.
Source: Clarin