> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://onemanandhisblog.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Is Facebook's algorithm a bit… rubbish?
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2016/07/facebook-algorithem-failure/
- Published: 2016-07-12T11:44:15.000Z
- Updated: 2016-07-12T11:44:15.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: algorithms, Facebook, om malik, social networks

The sheer power of Facebook’s news feed is not a matter of debate – especially for publishers. But Om Malik makes a different challenge in this [thoughtful piece for the *New Yorker*](http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/facebooks-news-feed-often-changed-never-great?ref=onemanandhisblog.com):

> However, every time Facebook’s news feed, introduced almost a decade ago, is manhandled, I am left wondering whether it has to change the feed with brute force because its algorithms are just too dumb to improve the service in a way that suits both Facebook—by making money and monopolizing our attention—and its 1.6 billion users.

![Facebook Newsfeed](https://i1.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2016/07/IMG_0645-1600x762.jpg?resize=922%2C439)

In short: every time Facebook has to manually intervene in the workings of the newsfeed like this – it’s an indication of a *failure* of the algorithm.

> What are the realistic abilities and limits of Facebook’s news feed? The more the company tweaks the feed in a crude and blunt manner, the more one has to wonder if Facebook’s alogrithms are not only rudimentary and basic but also possibly the company’s Achilles’ heel.