Facebook Users Must View Videos, Other Content For 10 Seconds Before Social Sharing Is Enabled

Facebook has implemented a 10-second rule, and we’re not talking about food that was dropped on the floor: In an effort to control social sharing of videos and other content from applications using its open graph, the content must be viewed by users for at least 10 seconds before those apps can share the activity to their timelines.

The social network said in a post on its developer blog:

Built-in watch and read actions can only be published after someone engages with the content for 10 or more seconds. If a video is shorter than 10 seconds, the viewer must watch the entire video.

This policy change to its open graph publishing guidelines marks Facebook’s latest attempt to quell users’ concerns about oversharing or unintentionally sharing content they have viewed from open graph-enabled apps, as well as to stop the bleeding of users defecting from apps such as the social readers of The Washington Post and The Guardian.

At the end of April, the social network began experimenting with an icon next to the names of those apps that would appear green if social sharing was enabled and gray if it was disabled.

Readers: What else should Facebook be doing to enhance its social sharing process for open graph-enabled apps?

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