They could in theory, but that would drive down engagement and they would make less money.
It is pretty hard to identify negative posts separately from hyperbolic exaggeration though. How do you tell ridiculous rage bait from a good Onion article when the only real difference in context is who posted it?
They push the stuff that people spend more time interacting with. People tend to interact more with negative stuff.
Facebook could modify the algorithm to detect if a post is negative and discart them.
Why would they do that?
They could in theory, but that would drive down engagement and they would make less money.
It is pretty hard to identify negative posts separately from hyperbolic exaggeration though. How do you tell ridiculous rage bait from a good Onion article when the only real difference in context is who posted it?