Selective Content Accessibility in a Social Network

A social networking service encourages users to post content to a communication channel with varying levels of accessibility to other users. Users may select how content will be published and control the accessibility of uploaded content using a privacy setting for each content item that the user posts. The privacy setting defines, or identifies, the set of connections who may view the posted content item. The posted content item is placed in a particular communication channel in the social networking service, such as a newsfeed or stream, where the content item can be viewed by those who are permitted to view it according to its associated privacy setting. Varying granularities of privacy settings provide flexibility for content accessibility on a social networking service.