That ’26 friends’ Facebook rumor was a hoax — but here’s how you can actually game the News Feed

The latest hoax that the Facebook world soundly fell for was the idea that only 26 (or 25) friends could see your posts. In copy-paste messages that made rounds on the Newsfeed, Facebook users asked their friends to comment with a simple “hi” to show that the post had appeared in their feeds — demonstrating that they were one of the Chosen 26.

It’s pretty miraculous that this needed debunking, since many of the posts I saw, at least, had more than 26 individuals commenting on them. But it’s especially far-fetched if you know anything about how the Facebook algorithm works. As Mark Zuckerberg recently reiterated when he announced changes in the algorithm to favor posts from friends and family over brands and news outlets, the more people who interact with a post, the higher it will rank in the News Feed algorithm.  Read more…

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