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Facebook Just Hid Donald Trump's Posts From Half Of His Audience

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Engagement on President Donald Trump’s Facebook posts has dropped by almost half since Facebook’s founder announced the latest algorithm change.

In January, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that it is going to be pushing out less “news” posts from public pages, however, more than just news sources are taking a hit.

Since the announcement, Trump’s official Facebook page saw a 45 percent decline in total engagement, dropping from over 4.7 million engagements to approximately 2.6 million engagements, Breitbart reported.

Picture credit: Breitbart

Average engagement on the president’s Facebook posts also dropped by about 38 percent, from 71,228 average engagements to 44,465 average engagements.

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The number of times Trump has posted on Facebook has not declined.

Before the algorithm change, Trump made 67 posts in 13 days without a drop in engagement.

Trump posted at about the same rate the 13 days after the change and saw a decline in engagements, as shown in Breitbart’s graph above.

When compared to Democrat political figures like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, Trump’s engagements seem to have taken the hardest hit.

Picture credit: Breitbart

It is important to note that while Sanders and Warren could have also seen a decline in engagements, the impact would not be comparable because they already had fairly low engagements when compared to Trump.

When asked by Breitbart, Facebook acknowledged that the algorithm change could have caused the decline, and pointed to their announcement post.

“Pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease,” the post read. “The impact will vary from Page to Page, driven by factors including the type of content they produce and how people interact with it.”

Do you think Facebook is trying to silence conservative voices?

After Trump’s election, the media, politicians and even Facebook employees accused Facebook of helping the president-elect win by spreading fake news.

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Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein said to the platform, “You’ve created these platforms, and now they’re being misused, and you have to be the ones to do something about it … or we will,” Wired reported.

Now, Facebook is making those changes. In his post, Zuckerberg said, “Our focus in 2018 is making sure Facebook isn’t just fun, but also good for people’s well-being and for society. We’re doing this by encouraging meaningful connections between people rather than passive consumption of content.”

He added, “We made changes that reduced time spent on Facebook by roughly 50 million hours every day.”

Now that Brad Parscale has been appointed as Trump’s 2020 election campaign chief, Facebook could expect pushback if Trump’s engagements continue to fall.

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Erin Coates was an editor for The Western Journal for over two years before becoming a news writer. A University of Oregon graduate, Erin has conducted research in data journalism and contributed to various publications as a writer and editor.
Erin Coates was an editor for The Western Journal for over two years before becoming a news writer. She grew up in San Diego, California, proceeding to attend the University of Oregon and graduate with honors holding a degree in journalism. During her time in Oregon, Erin was an associate editor for Ethos Magazine and a freelance writer for Eugene Magazine. She has conducted research in data journalism, which has been published in the book “Data Journalism: Past, Present and Future.” Erin is an avid runner with a heart for encouraging young girls and has served as a coach for the organization Girls on the Run. As a writer and editor, Erin strives to promote social dialogue and tell the story of those around her.
Birthplace
Tucson, Arizona
Nationality
American
Honors/Awards
Graduated with Honors
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, University of Oregon
Books Written
Contributor for Data Journalism: Past, Present and Future
Location
Prescott, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English, French
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Health, Entertainment, Faith




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