Facebook's News Feed algorithm will demote "engagement bait"

"SHARE if you love puppies" "LIKE to save polar bears"

"Share this" or "Like this" posts have been around since the beginning of social networking sites and are commonplace on most of them. We have all seen these posts and probably scrolled past them in irritation or indifference. But now, Facebook has decided to take action against "engagement bait" posts.

In an effort to cut down on spam content on News Feeds, the social networking site is now demoting posts that prompt users to share or like them. Demoting these posts means they are considered low priority content and the site's News Feed algorithm will place them below all other content in users' Feeds.

Facebook has assigned teams to review and categorize posts. The categorization will train a machine learning model how to detect engagement baiting posts, which will eventually replace the teams. There are some exceptions to this new policy, such as pages that ask Facebook users for help, advice or are raising money for charities. 

Within the next few weeks, Facebook will also begin punishing pages that repeatedly use such posts to drive reach and engagement. It has cautioned pages that use baiting to expect a decrease in their reach. This is part of a wider push by the site to clean up and streamline News Feeds. It hopes to cut down on spam posts