Facebook will soon demote posts that beg for likes, comments or shares in yet another step to improve the News Feed.

The so-called "engagement bait" posts come with simple requests — "Tag a friend who needs this!" — in an effort to rack up engagement and game the Facebook algorithm.

Facebook said the posts are counter to the company's emphasis on authenticity, and so, starting this week, they'll be pushed lower in users' feeds.

"We want to reduce the spread of content that is spammy, sensational, or misleading in order to promote more meaningful and authentic conversations on Facebook," the company said in a statement.

The change won't affect posts that ask for help, advice or recommendations, according to Facebook, and publishers and Pages will have a couple weeks to adjust before their content is affected.

Facebook has now made several recent changes to improve the News Feed. Last week the company said it was tweaking which videos users see and introduced a new feature that lets you 'Snooze' posts from a person or Page for 30 days.

The changes could be in response to research that even 10 minutes of scrolling through Facebook's feed put users in a worse mood.