If you’re still a heavy Facebook user, you probably managed to keep your sanity during this pandemic partly because of the various Facebook Groups you have joined. But as with a lot of things on the Internet lately, not all groups are good for our mental health. Groups have been used to spread misinformation and even hate towards specific kinds of people and there are also members in well-meaning groups who are out to create chaos. Facebook says they will be bringing more stringent action against groups and members that continually violate their policies.
First off, Facebook is expanding globally their move in the U.S. to remove civic and political groups as well as newly created groups from the group recommendations. The decision to do this in the U.S started with the runoff to the elections last year as people have used groups to spread divisive content and misinformation. People will still be able to invite people to the groups or search for them but they will not show up in the recommendations.
When a group also starts violating their rules, they will be shown lower in recommendations. And when groups and members continually violate the rules, the restrictions will get more severe until such point they are removed completely. Before joining any group, users will now be informed if it has Community Standard violations so they can make a more informed decision whether or not to join. Facebook will also limit invite notifications for the group and for the existing members, you’ll see less of the group’s content on your News Feed.
If a group has a substantial number of members that violate policies or are part of other groups removed for policy violations, Facebook will require admins and moderators to temporarily approve all posts. And if the moderators continue to approve content that violates the rules, the group will be taken down. When a member has repeated violations, they will be blocked from being able to post or comment in any group for a certain period of time.
These are of course good steps for Facebook to be taking although some might say they are late in applying these rules. They said they will continue to “build and invest” to make sure that people can rely on Groups for connection and support.