Facebook has announced a new initiative aimed at greater transparency on the platform – the Widely Viewed Content Reports.
The first report focuses on Q2 2021, with future reports set to be released every three months by Facebook and feature insights into the top performing content that appeared on the social media platform during that time. It is also important to point out that these reports focus solely on the United States at this stage, with no word on whether other regions will receive similar information quarterly.
As TechCrunch astutely points out, the fact that these reports will only be generated every three months could prove to be a problem, especially for those interested in more up-to-the-minute information on trending topics on Facebook.
With the platform already facing criticism regarding its algorithm and the way in which it serves up popular content, which is a problem that similarly large sites face too, whether these reports will offer the transparency that analysts and media are hoping for, remains to be seen.
Looking at the first report, which focuses on 1st April to 30th June this year, we are given several pie charts and lists to dissect. Regarding the latter, Facebook lists the top 20 domains during the aforementioned time. Unsurprisingly YouTube and Amazon rank in first and second respectively, followed by Unicef, GoFundMe and Twitter, but there is no information as to what types of content users are accessing at those domains via Facebook.
As such, the list does not provide the insight one might hope.
Facebook also shared the top 20 links that appeared on News Feed over the three months and the results are odd to say the least, with an alumni page for the Green Bay Packers American football team number one. Also in the top five are a marketplace for CBD products and a subscription page for a site known to spread pro-Trump rhetoric and COVID-19 disinformation.
Any way you slice it, the results from the first widely viewed content report are puzzling, especially when you compare it to reports created by media, such as The New York Times’ Kevin Roose who shares the top 10 most engaging posts on the platform every 24 hours via Twitter. Even more curious is that Roose gathers his data via CrowdTriangle, which is a social media monitoring tool owned by Facebook.
It therefore looks like these reports will need significant refinement moving forward, especially if we are to take this data seriously and Facebook is indeed aiming for the transparency it proposes.
To decipher the report for yourself, head here.
