Facebook has added a feature that lets users know why a particular post has appeared on their news feed, as it looks to increase transparency around how its algorithm works. The ‘Why am I seeing this post?’ tool shares similarities with the ‘Why am I seeing this ad?’ feature, which was launched in 2014.

The update aims to give users context around why a post has been served to them and enable them to have more control over what they see. ‘Why am I seeing this post?’ can be found in a drop-down menu in the right-hand corner of all posts in the news feed. It explains to users why they’re seeing a certain post, shows what information generally has the largest influence over the order of posts, and includes shortcuts to personalisation controls.

“During our research on ‘Why am I seeing this post?’, people told us that transparency into news feed algorithms wasn’t enough without corresponding controls. People wanted to be able to take action, so we’ve made it easy to manage what you see in news feed right from this feature,” said Ramya Sethuraman, product manager at Facebook, in a blog post.

“People’s feedback also helped us determine what specific information would be most valuable to highlight. For example, we’ve included examples of people’s interactions that contribute to each of the three signal categories we show in the feature.”

Facebook has also updated the aforementioned ‘Why am I seeing this ad?’ tool, introducing details about when an advertiser uploaded information about the user, such as stored email addresses or phone numbers, and if an advertiser worked with another marketing partner to run an ad.