Facebook is introducing a suite of new features for Facebook Groups, the private social networking product now used by over 1.8 billion people every month. On the occasion of the Facebook Communities Summit hosted digitally today, Facebook outlined a number of upcoming tools for those who manage groups, designed to help them better organize, filter and manage their communities, as well as new features focused on inspiring discussions, such as chats, prompts and questions and answers. Notably, Facebook also said it will soon launch a test of a new feature that will highlight public group discussions for non-group members, including on and off Facebook, via web searches.
The announcement comes at a time when Facebook groups are making headlines for their increasing use by those looking to spread malicious content and disinformation. Facebook this week said it removed over 6,500 militia groups and pages just last month, for example. Facebook groups have also become the breeding ground for a wide range of dangerous content, including health disinformation, anti-scientific movements, and unfounded conspiracy theories that trick users into thinking that there are secret hidden signals on the internet offering information. on an alternate reality that only they can see.
The new feature set for the Facebook Groups product itself, announced today, isn't necessarily focused on solving these kinds of issues, however. Instead, it's mainly about making groups easier to manage and use, in a more general sense. But the next test of where group discussions can be found could have a wider impact.
To get started, a new "Admin Assist" tool will help Facebook group admins better moderate posts by automatically rejecting posts that use certain keywords.
This could be used to filter out some inappropriate content, such as foul language, but it could also be used to stop approving posts that were off topic, those words used or hashtags associated with dangerous movements, such as QAnon, or even just posts. who were trying to advertise through Facebook groups.
For example, many communities have policies that prohibit posts from multilevel marketing (MLM) companies - such as Amway, Herbalife, Young Living, doTERRA, Avon, and others - but without activating post approval for all posts or users, there was no other way to block these ad attempts automatically before.
Group admins will also be able to organize their community content via hashtags, then pin a topic at the top of the group to highlight it for everyone.
This could be useful for keeping track of popular topics that are regularly discussed in the group perhaps. It could also be used to prevent people from asking the same questions over and over again by pointing them to, among other things, places where answers had already been given.
Facebook group administrators will also be able to use the Brand Collabs Manager which will allow them to monetize a larger public group by working directly with brands who wish to promote their products and services to group users.
Before today, brands tended to partner with influential individuals who had a following, but could now instead associate with an influential group.
Finally, Facebook will introduce a curriculum and exam that will enable people to earn a certification in Community Management that indicates they understand how to build, grow and support a Facebook Group community.
Other changes coming in groups aim to better engage users.
A new feature will allow groups to offer real-time chat for conversations with other group users.
A new type of collaborative post, "Prompt", will encourage conversations through the use of photos. This capitalizes on a trend already taking place among groups, where an admin will prompt discussion by asking users to share a photo, such as a favorite meme, a photo of their pet, a selfie, their latest photo in their camera roll. it is early.
But the new format will turn this business into a product, allowing users to more easily contribute to their response, then browse images shared by others.
Likewise, admins will be able to encourage discussions through new question-and-answer sessions that community members can participate in more easily by not relying on the traditional threaded comment format.
Group members can also choose to customize their profile photo for each group they join. This could help users feel more comfortable when contributing to a larger public community, for example, or it could be used just for fun, like using a photo of your dog in a pet community or your favorite book. in your online book club, for example.
In connection with these changes, Facebook also says it will begin testing new ways for people to find out about conversations taking place on public groups.
This will be done by showing something called "Related Discussions" in the news feed when someone posts a link or reshares a post on Facebook. These discussions will allow users to see what other public groups are saying about the same content. In a more radical change, Facebook says these discussions will also be indexed by search engines as users may see these conversations appear when "you are searching the web".
Facebook notes that it can use this feature to open users to more "different perspectives on the topics they are on" from others with "different backgrounds and experiences". This seems to imply that the change is an attempt to deinsulate users from the Facebook bubbles they have built for themselves.
However, it is unclear how far Facebook will go on this front, as the feature is not yet available. It is also unclear how users will react to being shown to opposite content, for example if the posts about the "big team" also included related discussions from the other team's fan group. And if this feature were exploited for more controversial discussions, such as politics, it could even get worse.
Additionally, Facebook will invite users to join the conversation in question, if the Group allows external participation.
Facebook says the feature will be tested in the US in the "coming months" and admins will be offered the option to allow their groups to be included in the new public groups experience at that time, where they can turn on publishing-approvals. The feature will expand outside of the United States next year.
The company adds that anything deemed fake by third-party checkers will not be eligible to appear in related discussions or other features where posts are displayed to people. And Facebook says that if anything breaks its rules, it will be completely removed. Of course, these guidelines exist on Facebook today and yet disinformation continues to spread and remains under control across the platform. This is because the problem is that applying the guidelines on a Facebook scale is extremely difficult, especially since the entire business has been built around a revenue model that prioritizes advertising but outsources moderation.
The other features announced today will also begin rolling out in the coming months.
