So, if I understand the context, this means:

"You may have heard an alarming rumor that we were letting people take control of their attention and actually communicate with their friends and family.

"Rest assured that we are doing nothing of the sort.

"It was just an experiment, in countries you might not care about anyway. Keep on clickbaiting."

Facebook inhibits you from communicating with friends and family? Are we talking about the same Facebook?

I pretty much only use Facebook to communicate with my family, but I have to wade through so much distraction, especially articles that people have "shared" or pages that people have "liked" or whatever. It's like a low-quality subreddit. I have to scroll a lot to find things that matter to me on a personal level.

The question was whether Facebook inhibits you from communicating with family and friends. It's a pretty laughable suggestion in my opinion. More specifically, the timeline doesn't even have to be a part of the argument. Facebook Messenger has made it easier to communicate with people, period.