Social media giants Facebook and Instagram reveal their 'recommendation guidelines' to the public

On Monday, social media giant, Facebook said it has made its internal guidelines public for both its main app and Instagram to help people better understand the kinds of content it recommends. This was done in a bid to provide relevant and unharmful recommendations to its users.

Facebook suggests Pages, Groups, Events and more based on content people expressed interest in and actions they take on its apps like Instagram, and personalise these recommendations.

"We're making recommendation guidelines public in the Help Center to help people better understand the kinds of content we recommend, and provide context on why some types of content aren't included in recommendations, and therefore may not be distributed as widely," Guy Rosen, VP Integrity at Facebook said in a statement.

The guidelines list five categories of content that "may not be eligible for recommendations." This includes borderline content that doesn't violate policies but that Facebook considers objectionable, spammy content, posts "associated with low-quality publishing" and posts that have been debunked by fact checkers.

"In developing these guidelines, we consulted 50 leading experts specialising in recommender systems, expression, safety and digital rights," Rosen said. The move can help the social network address criticism it is facing due to its algorithmically generated recommendations.

*Edited from an IANS report