This hilarious video about the 'Algorithm Mafia' is exactly what Facebook wants to avoid

We're all helpless before Facebook's secret News Feed algorithm: Whatever it decides to show us is what we'll end up scrolling through (and sometimes for way longer than we'd like). 

A new video by College Humor hilariously compares the social network's algorithm to the Mafia, showing three bowler-hatted goons bullying a poor user into looking at all sorts of posts she doesn't want to see. 

The video is especially topical because the woman keeps asking to see pictures of her friends (and their puppies) and the thugs will only serve her a gazillion articles instead. That's exactly the perception that Facebook's trying to avoid. Earlier this week, the social network announced that it's tweaking its News Feed to show more content from friends and family. Post from Pages, like media publications sharing their articles, will get less weight.

Facebook has reportedly been struggling against a plunge in original sharing (people posting their own status updates or photos) in part because people see it as a less of a personal space. So this vision of its News Feed is not only a users' nightmare, but Facebook's too. 

Watch the full video here: