As the battle against misinformation rages on, Meta has just announced some new features for Facebook groups, specifically designed to help group admins reduce misinformation in their communities. It’s a great control add-on to allow admins to ensure member safety, while simultaneously building communities that are better shielded from misleading trends and behaviors.
Block Bad Info
To start, Meta is adding a new option that allows group admins to automatically reject incoming posts that have been identified as containing false information. Posts that have been previously identified as being potentially fallacious can now be blocked from sharing within your group. This was made possible via collaboration with Meta’s third-party fact-checking network.
This could prove highly beneficial in reducing the spread of misinformation, adding more monitoring capacity to moderators without them having to painstakingly search posts one by one. The availability of fact-checking services also helps admins save time, as cross-referencing and validating information can be very time-consuming. Of course, not all Facebook groups will make use of it. At least for those with concerns, the update could be highly impactful to their moderation process.
To add, Meta is also expanding the functionality of ‘Mute’ within Groups. It’ll be aptly renamed to ‘Suspend’.
“…so that admins and moderators can temporarily suspend group members and participants from posting, commenting, reacting, participating in a group chat, and creating or entering a Room in a group”.
Mute was originally added back in 2020 as a means to help admins maintain healthy engagement within their communities. It was named ‘Mute’, but really the nature of the function was ‘suspension’. The rename effectively reinforces the element of penalty, further aiding moderation.
Meta is also expanding its Groups ‘Admin Assist’ functionality, which will now automatically approve or decline member requests based on specific, manually-applied criteria. This makes adherence to specific Groups instructions instrumental for approval. Admins can now also establish automated rules to block incoming requests, reducing manual workload.
Lastly, Meta’s also adding some community growth tools, along with Facebook Groups QR codes and a new email invitation to join. The new QR codes were spotted in initial rollout last week, enabling quick-join by simply scanning over the code.
“When scanned, people will be directed to the group’s About page where you can join or request to join.”
The Wrap
These are useful updates that will only prove more useful in the near future, especially now that everyone is on their way towards the next stage of digital connection. Besides reducing the scope and effects of misinformation, these new additions also reduce the overall workload of group admins, allowing them to focus more on community-building. Along with Facebook’s extensive suite of management and marketing tools, additions like these only help facilitate more engagement.
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