New Facebook Filter Gives Users, Including Brands, More Control Of News Feed

Facebook has introduced a “Feed Filter Bar” that gives users more control over the content they see in News Feeds — and promises brands more control over safety and honing their interactions with platform users.

The filter bar, a menu that appears at the top of the News Feed, makes it easier for users to access a tool that ranks content chronologically and switch between that mode and the mode that sorts content algorithmically.

Using the “most recent” filter lets users see newest posts first.

The filter bar also lets users choose the an option in the shortcuts menu that ties into the “Favorites” tool Facebook launched last October. Favorites lets users prioritize posts from up to 30 friends and pages. In addition to appearing higher in the News Feed, those posts can be viewed as a separate filter.

“For some time, it has been possible to view your News Feed chronologically, so that the most recent posts appear highest up,” Nick Clegg, Facebook VP of global affairs and communication, explained in an essay posted on Medium. “This turns off algorithmic ranking, something that should be of comfort to those who mistrust Facebook’s algorithms’ playing a role in what they see. But this feature hasn’t always been easy to find. So Facebook is introducing a ‘Feed Filter Bar’ to making toggling between the Most Recent feed, the standard News Feed, and the new Favorites feed easier.”

“Now, you can control your commenting audience for a given public post by choosing from a menu of options ranging from anyone who can see the post to only the people and Pages you tag,” Facebook Product Manager Ramya Sethuraman said in a blog post. “By adjusting your commenting audience, you can further control how you want to invite conversation onto your public posts and limit potentially unwanted interactions. And if you’re a public figure, creator or brand, you too can choose to limit your commenting audience on your public posts to help you feel safe and engage in more meaningful conversations with your community.”

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