Facebook Is Hiding 'Real' News Feed Content From Safety Observers, Says Report
Facebook's new changes to its news feed may have been designed to keep watchdog and observer groups from accessing data about the platform's content, a new report alleges
Facebook wants all of you for itself. The social networking giant is reportedly rolling out an update that prevents watchdogs from monitoring Facebook. Reported first by The Markup, it appears that Facebook has made a series of changes to its website code that prevents automated data collection of posts on the Facebook "news feed".
Why data collection matters
The data is usually collected by research platforms to ascertain the kind of content that is being amplified on Facebook. Facebook is selling the changes as improvement measures in terms of accessibility for visually impaired users.
The change in code essentially attaches junk code to HTML. The changes enable additional text on posts in the Facebook news feed in the form of ARIA tags. These tags are used in HTML coding and does not appear to the user.
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Also read: WhatsApp Will Show Ads Inside The App Soon, A Facebook Executive Said
It is used to help a screen reader software read the contents of the page aloud to users who may be visually impaired. The same code is used by researchers to figure out which posts are paid promos on Facebook to assess the platform.
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Since the changes were enforced in September, data collection rates have dipped, which urged The Markup to pick up the investigation. The changes also affect the performance of ad-blockers, which may not function as effectively as intended.
Also read: Instagram Ruins Teenage Girls' Self-Image, And Facebook Knows About It
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Even though the feature is being touted as assistive to visually impaired users, The Markup found that certain screen readers including the one made by Microsoft were reading aloud junk characters that are essentially gibberish when opened on the Google Chrome browser.
Do you think Facebook purposely made changes to the code to escape further scrutiny after a rough year? Let us know what you think in the comments below. For more latest stories coming in from the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.
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