Facebook ends alternative News Feed experiment

Facebook has decided to end its ill-received experiment with the alternative news feed feature called “Explore.”

Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s head of News Feed, said in a blogpost announcing the change that the experiment had been motivated by “consistent feedback” that people wanted to see more from friends and family and less from media organizations and businesses on the News Feed. So, the company created a separate feed called “Explore” for so-called public posts in Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Bolivia, Cambodia, Serbia and Slovakia. However, it got flak from all sides, being called “downright Orwellian” that was increasing fake news and misinformation on the platform.

So, the social media network decided to end the test and maintain one feed because people told the company in surveys they did not like the change, Adam Mosseri, head of the News Feed at Facebook, said in a statement.

"People told us they were less satisfied with the posts they were seeing, and having two separate feeds didn't actually help them connect more with friends and family," Mosseri said. Notably, change in the feed wasn't the only problem. Users in the countries that saw their news feeds split said they didn’t receive important information that they needed after the change took effect, and that they had no idea what the hell was going on with their feeds.

Mosseri acknowledged that Facebook has learned its lesson from the experiment and will try to provide better communication on changes it’s making to its core product in the future.

Facebook has been making big changes to the news feed in the last few months. The social network faced major backlash for its role in the 2016 election. Russian agents abused the platform with ads and organic posts that showed up on the news feed, in an attempt to sway the election and sow discord among Americans.