Facebook is taking action against Groups users and communities
who violate the platform’s rules, by introducing new updates to Groups. The social
media company will start putting users who break rules on probation, plans to further
limit the reach of civic and political groups, and will bring more moderation in
groups that violate its policies.
Users who will be involved in repeated problematic behavior on groups will not be allowed to post or comment in the groups for a certain period of time, which can last from seven to thirty days. The time period will depend on the frequency and intensity of the violations caused. Such users will also be prohibited from inviting other users to groups and won’t be allowed to create new groups.
Facebook also plans to add warning labels for groups where
numerous violations take place, so any time a user wishes to join such a group,
they will be warned about the group’s violation of Facebook’s community
standards. Invite notifications will also be limited for these groups. Users who
are already part of these groups will be shown lesser group content in their
feed.
The final change is that admins and moderators of violating
groups will be required to temporarily approve all posts whenever the group has
a considerable number of members that have violated rules or were part of other
groups that were removed for violating rules. Moreover, the group will be taken
down entirely if admins or moderators approve everything, including content
that breaks the rules.
Earlier this year, Facebook started to remove civic and
political groups in the US, which the company is now expanding to all other countries
as well. Facebook has been a target of criticism due to its leniency towards extremist
political and conspiracy theory groups.
