Facebook Engineer Lars Backstrom Responds To BuzzFeed Post On Why Users Don’t Know How Many Friends Have Seen Their Posts

The Number Facebook Doesn’t Want You to See,” a post on BuzzFeed last Thursday claiming that Facebook intentionally withholds data on how many friends of users see their posts, drew a quick rebuttal Sunday from Facebook Engineer Lars Backstrom.

The Number Facebook Doesn’t Want You to See,” a post on BuzzFeed last Thursday claiming that Facebook intentionally withholds data on how many friends of users see their posts, drew a quick rebuttal Sunday from Facebook Engineer Lars Backstrom.

BuzzFeed’s Charlie Warzel cited data from a Stanford University study, saying that on average, Facebook posts reach 35 percent of users’ friends, and on a monthly basis, Facebook users reach 61 percent of their friends. Warzel wrote:

For all of our obsession with likes, comments, retweets, and reblogs — and all of the careful attention to crafting our profiles — at the end of the day, the biggest question remains a mystery: How many people actually saw what you’re sharing?

In fact, most of what happens after an update is sent out takes place out of sight — only Facebook knows the truth.

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