Why Facebook should stop judging content quality

This action is a huge shift in Facebook’s modus operandi. It’s new for them to make a judgment, a judgment based on standards having nothing to do with what people interact with, on the quality of any type of content. (I’m not talking about things that are illegal or indecent—we have clear cultural standards for age, alcohol, medications, sexual content and the like, and I support those guidelines.)

The news feed algorithm’s job is to identify what people interact with, thus improving the quality of their feed. Now, Facebook is saying you’re wrong. “You are too stupid to recognize quality posts. Even though you interact with these memes, we’ll help you be more sophisticated by not showing them to you.” Instead of relying on their democratically-driven news feed algorithm, Facebook will apply its own aesthetic, with no explanation of that aesthetic.

This decision hurts small businesses the most

For the last year, among other things I teach, I’ve shown companies how to leverage memes to help their business market on Facebook. Many companies, especially small ones, are at a disadvantage in this new world of publishing interesting content EVERY day.