The move seemed like a pre-emptive strike against a groundswell of criticism that Facebook has suffered of late over the growing influence the platform has in the public sphere.
In a Facebook post on January 11, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote that users would "see less public content like posts from businesses, brands and media," a move that's likely to impact both brand advertisers and companies that use Facebook to publish owned media.
While it's still too early to tell what the implications of Facebook's changes to its News Feed might be, one area that's likely to be affected is the time users spend on the platform.
eMarketer's latest forecast for time spent with Facebook in the US, published in September 2017, estimates users will average 42 minutes per day on the platform in 2018. Growth of time spent has largely plateaued, and will increase by 1 minute to an average of 43 minutes per day in 2019.