Facebook’s first step towards reducing political content: All you need to know

Facebook, Inc. on Wednesday announced that the company will temporarily reduce the amount of political content in the News Feed of a small percentage of people in a few countries. The announcement comes days after Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, in an earnings call, indicated that the social media giant plans to keep civic and political groups out of recommendations in the United States for the long term and expand the policy globally.

Zuckerberg had said that such steps are necessary to ensure the communities users connect with are healthy and positive. The 36-year-old internet entrepreneur then revealed that the company was considering steps to reduce the amount of political content in News Feed as well. Citing feedback from Facebook users, Zuckerberg said that “people don’t want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services.”

“So one theme for this year is that we’re going to continue to focus on helping millions more people participate in healthy communities and we’re going to focus even more on being a force for bringing people closer together,” he added.