Facebook to pull plug on ‘Trending’ feature

Facebook said on Friday it will remove the ‘Trending' topics feature that compiles popular news from its social network, as it seeks to ensure users see news from trustworthy and quality sources.

The move, effective next week, comes at a time when the world's largest social network is combating the spread of 'fake” news on its platform.

Trending accounted for less than 1.5 percent of clicks to news publishers on average, Facebook said. The company added it was testing ways to display news including a 'breaking news” label and 'today in,” a dedicated section for local news.

The quality of news on Facebook has been called into question after alleged Russian operatives, for-profit spammers and others spread false reports on the site, including during the 2016 U.S. election campaign.

Facebook in the past few years had made changes to the Trending topics feature to avoid ideological or political bias.