In its ongoing efforts to push for a higher quality News Feed, Facebook is cracking down on posts that bait users to Like or share content.

Like it or lump it

Facebook announced the strict new measures in a blog post.

“Today we are announcing a series of improvements to News Feed to reduce stories that people frequently tell us are spammy and that they don’t want to see.

“Many of these stories are published by Pages that deliberately try and game News Feed to get more distribution than they normally would,” wrote Erich Owens, Software Engineer, and Chris Turitzin, Product Manager at Facebook.

Like-baiting

Facebook outlined it was targeting three type of posts.

“Like-bating”, which asks users to Like or share an image, “Frequently Circulated Content”, which takes aim at content that is often reposted, and “Spammy Links”, which post misleading content in a bid to get users to click through to a third-party site.

New sheriff in town

Facebook explained that the changes would not affect the majority of Pages, as most do not engage in these practices.

However the update is recommended reading for all brands with Pages to make sure their content schedule and posts don't fall foul of Facebook's new guidelines.

To find out more visit newsroom.fb.com.

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