Facebook ending News Feed experiment condemned as 'Orwellian'

Company announces end to trial in which professional news posts were removed from users' feeds in six countries

Facebook will end an experiment that removed professional news posts from users' News Feed in six countries, after months of criticism that the "downright Orwellian" move was increasing fake news and misinformation on the platform.

Adam Mosseri, Facebook's head of News Feed, said in a blogpost announcing the change that the experiment had been motivated by "consistent feedback" that people wanted to see more from friends and family and less from media organizations and businesses on the News Feed. Starting in October, the company created a separate feed called "Explore" for so-called public posts in Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Bolivia, Cambodia, Serbia and Slovakia.