The company also announced in a blog post changes aimed at
reducing the reach of groups that break site rules, including showing them
lower in algorithmic recommendations and alerting people when they go to join a
group that has previously violated policies.
Researchers and civil rights organizations have long warned
that Facebook groups, a product the company has vigorously promoted as
providing places for people with common interests, like sports or music, have
also been used to spread misinformation and organize extremist activity.
In an interview on Tuesday, Tom Alison, Facebook's vice
president of engineering, said Facebook was aggressively investing in groups.
He said the changes to political and civic group
recommendations, which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on an earnings
call in January, were due to users wanting to see less political content.
"They want us to turn down the temperature a little
bit," said Alison.
He said newly created groups on any topic would need to wait
21 days before becoming eligible for recommendation in order to give Facebook
time to understand how a group would operate.
Since 2017, Facebook has made groups a strategic priority,
and Zuckerberg credits the feature as a way to foster "meaningful
connections." Last year, it stepped up promotion of groups in news feeds
and search engine results.
But during the coronavirus pandemic, Facebook stopped
recommending health groups to users, saying they needed authoritative sources
of information. It also cracked down on certain groups in recent months as part
of policy changes to curb "militarized social movements."
In the months before the U.S. election and the Jan. 6
Capitol assault, Facebook groups buzzed with misinformation and violent
rhetoric. "Stop the Steal" groups rapidly swelled despite the pauses
on recommendations.
Facebook said on Wednesday it would require group moderators
to temporarily approve posts for groups with a "substantial" number
of rule-breaking members or members who were part of other groups removed for
rule violations.
It also said it would show rule-breaking groups' content
lower in members' news feeds and temporarily stop repeat rule-breaking members
from being able to post or create new groups.
Facebook's Alison declined to say what criteria would
determine when a rule-breaking group or its members would be removed from the
platform.
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