“A sizable majority of U.S. adults use Facebook and most of its users get news on the site. But a new Pew Research Center survey finds that notable shares of Facebook users ages 18 and older lack a clear understanding of how the site’s news feed operates, feel ordinary users have little control over what appears there, and have not actively tried to influence the content the feed delivers to them. The findings from the survey – conducted May 29-June 11 – come amid a debate over the power of major online platforms, the algorithms that underpin those platforms and the nature of the content those algorithms surface to users. Facebook’s broad reach and impact mean that its news feed is one of the most prominent examples of a content algorithm in many Americans’ lives. When asked whether they understand why certain posts but not others are included in their news feed, around half of U.S. adults who use Facebook (53%) say they do not – with 20% saying they do not understand the feed at all well. Older users are especially likely to say they do not understand the workings of the news feed: Just 38% of Facebook users ages 50 and older say they have a good understanding of why certain posts are included in it, compared with 59% of users ages 18 to 29…”