Patent ID: 9396501
Filing Date: 2016-07-19
CPC Classification: G06Q,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: providing a user account, in a social network system, comprising information that identifies a person associated with the user account; receiving one or more user interactions by the user account with content presented in a user interface on a display device, wherein the content is associated with a first entity account in the social network system, wherein the user interactions comprise one or more endorsements of the content or the first entity account by the user account, and wherein the endorsements are associated with a soft following metric; identifying a second entity account in the social network system selected for following by the user account, wherein the selection for following is triggered by direct action by the user account to add the second entity account to one or more groups for the user account, and wherein the selection for following is associated with a hard following metric that allows the second entity account to post data to a stream of the user account within a stream user interface of the social network system; and providing, by one or more processors in the social network system, the first entity account with limited access to post data to the stream of the user account based on a level of endorsement of the first entity account defined by the soft following metric, wherein the limited access to post data to the stream of the user account comprises less than free access to post data to the stream of the user account as compared to the second entity account associated with the hard following metric for the user account.