Facebook’s been in the backdrop of most of our lives since 2012 when the social network reached 1 billion users, has been making extra spicy headlines over the last month. We’ve seen a large leak of documents from a Facebook whistleblower, a congressional hearing, an announced name change, a name change, and much grandstanding by lawmakers and pundits about the platform. I stopped using Facebook proper almost entirely years ago. Still, I have a cursory understanding of the service and a perhaps firmer grasp of the ad economy that funds it. I don’t want to come across as shilling for Facebook because I’m no fan of the company, and I know my opinions are rarely worth the paper it would take to print them. However, this is a nugget that I find interesting within all the histrionics. Facebook makes more money without the algorithm, but engagement drops. According to Alex Kantrowitz, one of the reporters with access to a large trove of leaked Facebook documents. “In February 2018, a Facebook researcher all but shut off the News Feed ranking algorithm for .05% of Facebook users. “What happens if we delete ranked News Feed?” they asked in an internal report summing up the experiment. Their findings: Without a News Feed algorithm, engagement on Facebook drops significantly, people hide 50% more posts, content from Facebook Groups rises to the top, and — surprisingly — Facebook makes even more money from users scrolling through the News Feed.” It’s seemingly a surprise to most people, who, like me, assume the Facebook algorithm’s entire…Facebook Makes More Money Without The News Feed Algorithm