‘Facebook’s Top Ten’ on Twitter Abruptly Changes
On September 28 2021, a single tweet from the “Facebook’s Top 10” Twitter account became notable not for what it showed, but for what it didn’t:
The top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages in the last 24 hours are from:
1. Insider
2. CNN
3. CNN
4. Occupy Democrats
5. The New York Times
6. The Onion
7. Peachy Sunday
8. HuffPost
9. NPR
10. Reuters— Facebook's Top 10 (@FacebooksTop10) September 28, 2021
The account, which was created in July 2020 and is curated by New York Times tech journalist Kevin Roose, publishes daily tweets concerning the sources of “the 10 top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages every day, ranked by total interactions.” On September 28 2021, the list read:
1. Insider
2. CNN
3. CNN
4. Occupy Democrats
5. The New York Times
6. The Onion
7. Peachy Sunday
8. HuffPost
9. NPR
10. Reuters
By itself, the list of outlets was not inherently remarkable. Its sources — CNN, The New York Times, The Onion, and NPR among them — were fairly mundane.
What made the list notable was its deviation from the norm, as seen in previous “Facebook’s Top 10” tweets:
The top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages in the last 24 hours are from:
1. Yahoo Life
2. Koreaboo
3. The Real Mike Epps
4. Ben Shapiro
5. Breitbart
6. Soompi
7. allkpop
8. allkpop
9. Breitbart
10. Breitbart— Facebook's Top 10 (@FacebooksTop10) September 27, 2021
The top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages in the last 24 hours are from:
1. Dan Bongino
2. TMZ
3. NBC News
4. News 4 Tucson – KVOA
5. The Hollywood Reporter
6. Ben Shapiro
7. Ben Shapiro
8. Dan Bongino
9. allkpop
10. The Dodo— Facebook's Top 10 (@FacebooksTop10) September 24, 2021
The top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages in the last 24 hours are from:
1. NPR
2. Ben Shapiro
3. Dinesh D'Souza
4. ForAmerica
5. AMERICAN – STRONG!
6. CNN
7. The New York Times
8. Glenn Beck
9. Ben Shapiro
10. Fox News— Facebook's Top 10 (@FacebooksTop10) September 15, 2021
Readers shared the list and speculated that Facebook had “changed the algorithm” due to “bad press” or federal grilling:
They got a hearing in front of Congress. Gotta goose the algorithm. It can't be just Ben Shapiro, Dan Bongino, and The Epoch Times like it usually is. https://t.co/o1kud3t8HF
— ballfootski (@ballfootski) September 28, 2021
Interesting how Facebook changes its algorithm just before they are set to testify. The usual top-performing link posts come from conspiracy theorists and far-right outlets with a specialty in spreading misinformation. https://t.co/33JrPnw17j https://t.co/Rs3hcnDvJY
— Andrew Kimmel (@andrewkimmel) September 28, 2021
Odd. For the top 10 performing links to have changed so drastically….totally sus. https://t.co/I0UQyVxLlA
— _Liz_Kitteh_ 🐾 🚶♂️⬅️6ft➡️🚶♀️ 😷 💦👏 (@_Liz_Kitteh_) September 28, 2021
Progressive media-centric site Media Matters for America (MMFA) shared a useful GIF image of several days’ tweets from the Facebook’s Top 10 account, and attributed the shake-up to then-recent news developments concerning R. Kelly:
What you're seeing in the top links is breaking news (R. Kelly verdict) affecting the results; this happens from time to time and is the occasional exception to the rule that Facebook is a right-wing propaganda machine.
— Media Matters (@mmfa) September 28, 2021
See: pic.twitter.com/ETYlNdWVSU
— Media Matters (@mmfa) September 28, 2021
However, the reasons for the switch, whether algorithmically or socially derived, were not immediately clear.
On September 28 2021, the “Facebook’s Top 10” Twitter account shared their daily list — immediately leading to discourse about the sudden absence of hyperpartisan, primarily right-wing commentary. It is true that the list changed fairly dramatically and virtually overnight — but as is often the case, determining what (if anything) happened remained difficult due to Facebook’s ongoing lack of transparency.