A viral post claiming that if a Facebook user copies the same content and posts it on their timeline, the user would be able to circumvent the social media platform's algorithm and avoid seeing posts from only '26 friends' is false.
The post details that if these steps are followed it will bypass Facebook's algorithm and falsely claims that only posts from 26 friends are shown to Facebook users. The same copy-paste hoax has been circulating since 2017 and has been debunked earlier by Snopes and The Washington Post. (here, here)
The viral post reads, "I was wondering where everyone went! Thanks for the tip to circumvent Facebook...Works!! I have a whole new profile. I see posts from people I didn't see anymore. Facebook's new algorithm picks the same people - around 25-who will see your posts. Hold your finger anywhere in this post and click "copy".Go to your page where it says " what's on your mind". Tap your finger anywhere in the empty field. Click paste,,."
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Viral on Facebook
On searching with the same caption on Facebook, we found that the post is viral with the false claims
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral message is a hoax and has been circulating since 2017, with the false claim that a user can circumvent Facebook's algorithm by copy-pasting the message and posting it on their timeline.
According to Snopes, which had fact-checked the same post in February 2018, these rumors and similar fake posts were followed on the heels of a Facebook blog post dated January 11, 2018, that had addressed changes to the service related to changes in the content mixture that users could expect to see in their newsfeeds.
In February 2019, Facebook had responded to a viral message that users see posts from only 26 friends in your news feed stating that, " Facebook does not set a limit on the number of people whose posts are shown in your News Feed."
It also stated that the persistence of the "26 friends" myth is understandable as the posts in a user's news feed are ranked in the order Facebook believes they'll be most interested in seeing.
Facebook further states that "The News Feed algorithms prioritize posts that are predicted to spark conversations among people, whether because of format — for example, live videos tend to lead to more discussions than regular videos — or because the posts were shared by people, groups or Pages you interact with frequently."
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