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Facebook Bug: People Seeing Updates From Pages They Haven’t Liked

Source: Pixabay

According to reports on Twitter from Facebook users, Facebook apparently has a bug at the moment. One user tweeted, There is a bug in your app. I am getting updates from the people I unfollowed a long time ago. When I clicked on their profiles, the follow button pops up. Users are claiming that the pages being updated on newsfeed are those which these users have unfollowed long ago. Facebook has not acknowledged this bug yet.

Facebook bug updates new pages on the newsfeed

Another user tweeted, “Anyone else’s @FacebookNews Feed weird? I’m getting 10 brand posts in a row (Brooklyn Nets, FIFA), nothing from my “friends” and little from news sources. Can’t tell if it’s a bug or the beginning of the effort to keep the election safe.” Another tweeted, “Facebook has bug in the newsfeed! Showing weird content in front!”

According to Facebook users, the application’s algorithm is displaying strange profiles and pages on the newsfeed. The Facebook bug is showing the content of unfriended users on the feed as well. The major concern for users at this sensitive time is the misplaced display of news sources, for example, some media outlets that users do not even follow are being displayed on their newsfeeds.

Another user tweeted, “Something terribly wrong with the newsfeed, am seeing updates from Pages I have never liked like India Today, ET Panache, Pune Times, CNBC Awaz, Money Control, etc (when I clicked I am seeing liked? But I have not. Some technical glitch??” One more tweeted, “Facebook update is awful. Ajeeb Haqiqat TV jesy pages k posts arhy Jinke kabi dekhy b nai.” While another tweeted, Can someone tell me why I’m seeing #Facebook pages I muted and unfollowed ages ago just ABSOLUTELY FLOODING my#MostRecent feed?

Bug or a tactic?

One user tweeted, “Facebook had a terrible bug this morning, where all of the people I unfollowed for their extreme politics were suddenly showing in my feed. Many users feel that this is a strategy to influence elections.” Another said, “8 days before an election? I’m sure it’s TOTALLY an unintentional bug that will take about 10 days to fix.”

Facebook is reportedly accused of changing content strategies before elections to influence election results. A few weeks ago, Facebook announced that it will be banning all political polls till 3rd November in order to reduce “reduce opportunities for confusion or abuse.

However, Facebook’s recent update has introduced a feature called “algorithmic amplification”, this feature is applied to posts and content within groups. This means that even if you are not a part of a particular group, you might still see the content being posted in that group. This is primarily because Facebook “thinks” you would want to see those posts. This algorithm will perpetuate false and inflammatory content on the app. Such an algorithm will also allow Facebook groups to rapidly recruit new members.

About the author

Saman Iqbal

Saman is a law student. She enjoys writing about tech, politics and the world in general. She's an avid reader and writes fictional prose in her free time.







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