Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta, said the
test was part of its broader paid subscription effort. The social media company
is one of many tech giants that have been working to woo social media creators
and their large followings through payments and new tools.
Facebook, which has in recent years focused on building
communities as a tactic to drive engagement on the site, said Group
administrators will be able to run e-commerce shops to sell merchandise or create
community fundraisers, which could offset the costs of running a Group.
On Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said that creators
would be able to share custom links allowing them to accept payments directly,
in a swipe at Apple's subscription fees. Facebook launched its subscriptions
service last year.
The company announced a series of updates to its Groups
product during its live-streamed Communities Summit. It said the subgroups
feature, which can be free or paid, would allow members to break off within
groups to focus on certain regions or topics.
Facebook Groups have been under scrutiny from lawmakers and
researchers who argue that they provide closed spaces for health
misinformation, violent rhetoric and extremism to proliferate without being
properly policed.
A company spokesperson said Facebook was testing community
fundraisers with select Groups and that Groups created in the last 30 days,
violate its content rules or frequently share harmful content or misinformation
were not eligible.
Facebook said Group administrators would get tools to
customize their group's appearance and members would soon be able to give
"community awards" for valuable posts.
The company also teased a new experience combining "the
best of Groups and Pages in one place," and said it would allow
administrators of Pages to use the same moderation tools as Groups. It said
this was in early testing over the next year. © Reuters
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