Facebook Inc. said it was testing the idea of dividing its News Feed in two, separating commercial posts from personal news.

The Facebook News Feed is a series of posts such as photos from friends, updates from family members, advertisements and material from celebrities or other pages that a user has liked.

The test, which is occurring in six smaller countries, now offers two user feeds, according to a statement from the company: one feed focused on friends and family and a second dedicated to the pages that the customer has liked.

The change could force those who run pages, everyone from news outlets to musicians to sports teams, to pay to run advertisements if they want to be seen in the feed that is for friends and family.

Depending on how people respond, two news feeds could mean that they see fewer links to news stories.

The test has already affected website traffic for smaller media outlets in recent days.