The internet has lied to you, again.
This time it’s the hoax going around about Facebook limiting your News Feed to just 26 friends. There are several versions of the chain letter (that should’ve been a red flag right there) going around, but here’s one example, snagged by The Washington Post:
How to avoid hearing from the same 26 FB friends and nobody else:
Here is a post explaining why we don’t see all posts from our friends….
News feed recently shows only posts from the same few people, about 25, repeatedly the same, because facebook has a new algorithm.
Their system chooses the people to read Your post. However, I would like to choose for myself, Therefore, I ask you a favor: if you read this message leave me a quick comment, a “hello”, a sticker, whatever you want, so you will appear in my news feed.
Don’t just “Like”, Facebook requires a “Comment”. Even one word! Thanks!!!
Otherwise Facebook chooses who to show me and instead I don’t need facebook to choose my friends!
Do not hesitate to copy and paste on your wall so you can have more interaction with all your contacts and bypass the system. That’s why we don’t see all posts from our friends!
There’s just one problem with the heads up: It’s not true. Facebook’s updated News Feed impacted content from publishers, not your friends list. In fact, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week that the social network wants to foster more “meaningful connections” between friends and family on Facebook.
“Friends don’t let friends copy and paste memes, and this one simply is not true,” a Facebook rep told TheWrap. “We rank News Feed based on how relevant each post might be to you, and while we’ve made some updates that could increase the number of posts you see from your friends, your News Feed isn’t limited to 25 of them.”
Snopes reported the meme first popped up in December, but has picked up steam in the last week. So, if you’re crazy uncle had you worried you’d only be seeing two dozen people over and over in your News Feed, you can breath a sigh of relief.