Facebook, Instagram To Show You More Content From People You Don't Follow

pcmag.com:

Get ready to see more strangers on your Facebook and Instagram feeds.

Both social media platforms plan on circulating more content from people you don’t follow in an effort to keep you interested. Company parent Meta revealed the strategy in an earnings call(Opens in a new window) on Wednesday.

“Right now, about 15% of content in a person’s Facebook feed and a little more than that of their Instagram feed is recommended by our AI from people, groups, or accounts that you don’t follow. We expect these numbers to more than double by the end of next year,” said company CEO Mark Zuckerberg. 

Zuckerberg is betting that his AI algorithms will be able to find enticing content to keep you hooked on the platforms, which should help generate more ad revenue for the company. “As our AI finds additional content that people find interesting, that increases engagement and the quality of our feeds,” he said as Meta for the first time reported a decline in year-over-year revenue growth. 

Still, the strategy represents a shift from Facebook focusing on promoting content from your friends and family, which the platform pivoted to back in 2016. Three years later, Facebook also began prioritizing groups. The goal was to create a sense of community over Facebook and to help you find content you care about when the company was battling concerns about misinformation and fake news. 

But now the company says its AI algorithms will increasingly drive the content over Facebook and Instagram. The algorithms are already hard at work over Meta’s TikTok-like competitor, Reels, which surfaces a rolling feed of videos it thinks you’ll like. “But this overall AI trend is much broader and covers all types of content, including text, images, links, group