Facebook is set to kill its “trending” news section next week after four years and is testing a new breaking news feature that could replace it.
The company announced the move on Friday, saying that the trending feature wasn’t popular and accounted for less than 1.5 percent of clicks to the websites of news publishers. More problematic was the feature’s tendency to spread fake news, particularly during the 2016 presidential election, The Associated Press noted.
Facebook’s head of news products, Alex Hardiman, wrote in the announcement that the company is currently testing a breaking news label that would put the power of editorial decisions in the hands of news organizations. Previously, moderators for Facebook made the decisions.
“There are other ways for us to better invest our resources,” Hardiman told the AP.
Eighty publishers around the world currently have access to the tool, which allows them to add a label that indicates a story is “breaking.”
Facebook said it is also testing a new section called “Today In,” which displays local breaking news, and a dedicated section of Facebook Watch in the U.S. for live videos and other items exclusive to the platform.