Social media has been a staple way that people use to receive their news, yet Facebook seems to be struggling with how to deliver that news properly. As a result, there has been a huge decline in teen usage of the site, and the company has decided they are going to shut down its “trending” tab. The little known feature is disappearing next week due to it garnering less than 1.5 percent of clicks directed to news sites and the fact it is only available in 5 countries.
In 2016, Gizmodo revealed that workers who filtered news through the Facebook trending tab were suppressing conservative news articles. The company then switched to an automated algorithm that determined which posts went into the trending section but is now deciding to “rethink” the way that breaking news is shared across the site.
Since 2015, Facebook has lost popularity in 20% of teens aged 13-17 who now favor Instagram, Snapchat, and Youtube. It’s no surprise that Facebook is rethinking its strategies on delivering news, as the once dominant platform for social media has taken a back seat. Innovations we could see coming in the near future include a “breaking news” tab and new ways that video news is delivered to users.
