Facebook is testing options to give users more control over News Feed content

Facebook is testing new options for users to personalize the content they see in their news feed. This makes it possible to choose how many messages users see from certain contacts, or from Facebook groups and pages in which they participate.

The personalization options also allow users to choose which topics they want to see more or less of in their feed. It is not mentioned which topics users can filter on. Facebook says it is testing the new options with a “small portion” of users worldwide. They will gradually expand in the coming weeks, the platform said.

According to Facebook, companies will also have more influence over whose news feed their ads appear. This makes it possible to avoid certain subjects. The ads will then not be shown to users who were recently ‘engaged’ with those topics in their news feed. The topics that can be excluded are news and politics, ‘debated social issues’, and crime and tragedy. Facebook says it is still working on early tests and expects to make the options available to every advertiser sometime in 2022.

This isn’t the first time Facebook has tried to make changes to the News Feed. It previously launched Favorites. This feature allows users to choose up to thirty contacts to rank higher in the news feed. It is also already possible to filter the news feed so that only the posts of those contacts are visible. There is also a Snooze function, which makes it possible to unfollow a contact, group or page for thirty days. According to Facebook, these existing personalization options will soon become “easier to access.”