Facebook will hide undesirable viral content

A change in Facebook’s news feed algorithm will essentially work to push down some types of viral posts that appear in users’ feeds.

Based on the results of its “story surveys,” which Facebook says it gives to “tens of thousands” of users each day, the social network will punish popular stories that people don’t actually want to see.

It sounds convoluted—how can a story go viral if most people don’t want to see it?

A post in Facebook’s newsroom explains:

It’s hard to predict when or why posts go viral. Sometimes this happens because lots of people are really interested in seeing that particular post. However, sometimes a post goes viral and many people tell us that they weren’t interested in seeing it, despite lots of people liking, sharing and commenting on it.