Meta (formerly Facebook) on Thursday announced that it is expanding the “Why Am I Seeing This?” feature in the Instagram and Facebook Reels along with Instagram’s Explore page so that users can understand the reason why that post is being shown to them.
“We’re expanding our “Why Am I Seeing This?” feature in Instagram Reels tab and Explore, and Facebook Reels in the coming weeks, after previously launching it for some Feed content and all ads on both Facebook and Instagram,” Nick Clegg, President, Global Affairs at Meta, wrote in a blogpost.
“You’ll be able to click on an individual reel to see more information about how your previous activity may have informed the machine learning models that shape and deliver the reels you see,” he added.
Moreover, the tech giant said that it wants to be more transparent about its AI (artificial intelligence) systems and give more control to users over the content shown to them.
“Today, we’re building on that commitment by being more transparent around several of the AI systems that incorporate your feedback to rank content across Facebook and Instagram. These systems make it more likely that the posts you see are relevant and interesting to you,” Clegg said.
Meta is also testing a new feature on Instagram which will make it possible for users to indicate that they are “Interested” in a recommended reel in the Reels tab, so the company can show them more of what they like.
Users can already select “Not Interested” from the three-dot menu on the post to see fewer posts of that type.
Further, the company released 22 system cards for Facebook and Instagram, which will give information about how their AI systems rank content, some of the predictions each system makes to determine what content might be most relevant to users, as well as the controls they can use to help customise their experience.
The cards will cover Feed, Stories, Reels and other surfaces where people go to find content from the accounts or people they follow. The system cards will also cover AI systems that recommend “unconnected” content from people, groups, or accounts they don’t follow.
