Facebook Limiting Number of Friends Posts That Can Appear in Your Newsfeed-Mostly Fiction!

Facebook Limiting Number of Friends Posts That Can Appear in Your Newsfeed-Mostly Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:

Facebook is limiting the number of friends’ posts that can appear in your news feeds unless you take specific action to stop it.

The Truth:

Claims that Facebook will only allow posts from 26 friends to appear in your news feed unless you comment on a post with a specific word or phrase are false. But, at the same time, Facebook’s algorithm could be filtering out friend post that its algorithm deems irrelevant to you.
It’s not clear where rumors that Facebook is limiting the number of friends posts that appear in your newsfeed came from. Several versions have appeared. The earliest we could find appeared in October 2017. That version warned users that they had to comment on a post with the current time to prevent it.

An early version of the rumor that Facebook is limiting friends that appear in your newsfeed surfaced in October 2017.

Another version of the rumor surfaced in February 2018. That version tells readers that they have to comment with a post or sticker saying “hi”to prevent Facebook from showing them posts from the same 26 friends over and over. Doing that, the post claims, will allow users to “bypass the system.”

Is Facebook Only Letting Me See Posts from 26 Friends?

There’s been no indication from Facebook that it’s changed its algorithm and now only shows users posts from 26 friends. And this rumor is very similar to previous rumors that Facebook will begin charging. In that version, Facebook will charge users per post unless the comment with a specific word or phrase.
Facebook has repeatedly said that it would not make big changes to the platform (like limiting news feeds to posts from 26 friends) without first communicating with users. And the company has said that it would never communicate big changes like that through a word-of-mouth campaign among users (like the one in this rumor).
So, you do not have to comment or take any specific action to prevent Facebook from limiting friend posts in your newsfeed.

Why Don’t All My Friends’ Facebook Posts Appear in My Feed?

Have you ever noticed a post on a friend’s page that didn’t appear in your news feed? If so, there’s no reason to worry. Facebook doesn’t necessarily aim to show you everything your friends post — only the posts that are most relevant to you.
Like Google, most details about Facebook’s algorithms aren’t public knowledge. But, in general, the company  uses a few criteria to determine which friend posts are most relevant to you. Here’s the general criteria:

  • All posts that you’re tagged in appear
  • Friend posts with more likes, comments or reactions will appear
  • The type of post (video, story, photo, status update) impacts if and where the post appears
  • A mutual friend reacting to another friend’s post will make it likelier to appear
  • Multiple people reacting to each other’s comments on a post will make it likelier to appear

So, it might seem like Facebook is showing you posts from the same 26 friends. But that’s probably only because Facebook’s algorithm has deemed posts from those friends more relevant to you. That’s why we’re calling this rumor “mostly fiction.”