Meta Cracks Down on Spammy Content to Revive 'OG Facebook'

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has initiated a significant campaign to tackle spammy content on its platform. This effort is led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who aims to revert to the original vision of Facebook, often referred to as "OG Facebook," where users' feeds were dominated by genuine content from real people. The company has recognized that some accounts manipulate the algorithm to boost views or gain unfair monetization advantages, resulting in an influx of spammy content that overshadows original content from creators.

To combat this issue, Meta will reduce the reach of accounts that share spammy content and make them ineligible for monetization. This includes accounts that post content with lengthy captions and an excessive number of hashtags, as well as those that post content with captions unrelated to the actual content. For instance, an image of a dog with a caption about airplane facts would be flagged as spammy behavior. Additionally, Meta will target spam networks that create multiple accounts to share the same spammy content, making them ineligible for monetization.

The crackdown on spammy content comes as AI-generated content, often referred to as "AI slop," becomes a growing problem across social media platforms, including Facebook. While Meta's current crackdown is not directly targeting AI slop, accounts engaging in spammy behavior while also sharing AI-generated content will be impacted. Meta has acknowledged the concerns around AI slop cluttering users’ feeds and has stated that it will address the issue as part of its broader focus on improving users' feeds.

As part of today's announcement, Facebook also said that it will reduce the reach and visibility of comments that it detects as fake engagement. Additionally, Facebook will start testing a comments feature that will allow users to signal which comments are irrelevant or don’t fit in the context of the conversation. Meta is also updating its comment management tool to detect and auto-hide comments from people who may be using a fake identity. Creators will also be able to report impersonators in the comments.

These steps are part of Facebook's attempt to bring back the "OG Facebook" that Mark Zuckerberg promised. A few weeks ago, the friends-only timeline was enabled, showcasing updates from friends without any other recommended content. Both the new Friends tab and the crackdown on spammy content demonstrate Facebook's commitment to improving users' feeds and showing them content that they actually want to see. By focusing on authentic content and reducing spam, Meta aims to enhance the overall user experience and return to the platform's roots.