Facebook is updating the Trending Topics algorithm it uses to promote stories, providing news organisations with better controls over which stories get featured.

The Trending Topics section came under fire several times last year. In August, Facebook eliminated human editors from the process after being accused of suppressing right-leaning publishers, instead relying on an algorithmic process. However, towards the end of the year, the social network was criticised for allowing fake news stories to flourish on its platform with little to no oversight.

The new changes aim to solve the fake news problem while still ensuring that stories are selected without bias. Instead of how many people are talking about a news story, trending topics will now be determined by the number of publishers posting articles about the same topic.

“This should surface trending topics quicker, be more effective at capturing a broader range of news and events from around the world and also help ensure that trending topics reflect real world events being covered by multiple news outlets,” said Will Cathcart, vice president of product management at Facebook.

The changes will also see headlines from publishers reintroduced to the trending topics, which are currently presented simply as general topic names, and the same trending topics will now be shown to everyone in the same region, rather than tailored to a users individual interests, in an effort to fight the bubble effect Facebook was also accused of propagating.

The update is being rolled out selectively today, and will be available to everyone within the US over the course of the next few weeks. Facebook has said it will continue to listen to user feedback in order to make improvements to the Trending Topics experience.