The problem with Facebook is that it’s hiding things from you

Most publishers and page owners will tell you that they have seen a decline in the number likes, and reach their posts on Facebook have had in recent months. It’s not just you, Facebook is systematically doing it to make more money.

This video from science video blogger, Derek Muller from Veritasium, talks about the differences between Facebook’s advertising model to YouTube and what it means for users.

According to Muller, the way Facebook distributes news and information leaves the user having to pay for friends and family to see what they are up to, which is pretty messed up when you think about it.

Essentially Facebook only shows information in your Newsfeed that you are predisposed to liking anyway and if you haven’t liked or engaged with someone, they inadvertently disappear from your feed. Why? Because the way Facebook sees it if you don’t like everything thing they post then it must mean you don’t want to see their news. This is why there are so many cat photos, wedding photos, baby and Buzzfeed articles on your feed.

The way Muller sees it, Facebook is “actively restricting” the reach of your post in order to pay to get people who already indicated they like your content to see it. So in essence where YouTube pay creators to put up content and the more it gets view the more money the creator makes. On Facebook the more viewers want the more money they have to pay to get it, interesting for a platform that is user dependent, I mean without the users what would Facebook be?

This is all indicative of the social network’s original flaw, its inability to monetize correctly. Its original advertising model — sidebar ads — has failed, so in order to make up for that it has chosen to monetize the users instead. Though when it is free you are the product, surely Facebook needs to come up with a model that doesn’t defeat the purpose of the platform?

Watch Muller’s full video below.