Facebook released its first “widely viewed content” report, a study that tries to show what material is most widely distributed on the social network at a time when brands are concerned about how much disinformation and unsavory content courses through the social network.
On Wednesday, Facebook revealed what websites and Pages accounted for the most widely viewed content in people’s News Feeds, which is the personalized stream of posts delivered to 1.9 billion daily users. The report covered Facebook posts in the second quarter, and it will be updated quarterly as part of Facebook’s Community Standards Enforcement Report, which details how much content Facebook removes for violating policies on hate speech, violence, nudity and other areas.
Wednesday’s analysis was one of the first times Facebook has provided an overview of what Pages and websites get the greatest exposure. The report was met with some skepticism, however, because it did not dive into specifics about the content that sees the most engagement, including likes, shares and comments. In the report, Facebook defined a “content view” as “what is counted whenever a piece of content appears in News Feed.”