Facebook groups have become an incredibly popular way for people to connect over shared interests, causes, hobbies and more on the social media platform. With over 1.8 billion monthly active users on Facebook, groups provide a way for like-minded users to gather in a more intimate setting than the open social network.
Over the years, Facebook has continually updated and changed various aspects of how groups function in order to improve the user experience. Most recently, in 2020, Facebook announced some major changes to groups, including new admin tools, improved recommendations, and updated policies. These changes aimed to help admins better manage their groups while enabling users to more easily find and engage with relevant groups.
New Admin Tools
One of the biggest changes Facebook introduced for groups focused on providing more robust tools for group admins. These admin tools aim to help those running groups keep their communities safe and engaged.
Some of the new admin features include:
- Admin assistance – Allows admins to assign limited admin roles to other members to help manage the group
- Group rules – Allows admins to clearly define the rules and purpose of their group
- Comment review – Gives admins the ability to temporarily turn on post approvals and manually approve comments in their group
- Group quality – Provides admins with insights into group growth and activity to identify member spikes, declines in post quality, and more
These expanded tools enable group admins to more effectively moderate their groups, promote engagement, and maintain their intended group culture or purpose.
Improved Recommendations
In addition to the new admin features, Facebook also changed its groups discovery and recommendations experiences for users. This aims to help users better find and engage with relevant groups that match their interests and needs.
Some key improvements to recommendations include:
- Personalized recommendations – Group recommendations are now based on a user’s interests, relationships and activity on Facebook
- Related group suggestions – When visiting a group, users will see suggestions for similar or related group they may want to join
- Group search updates – Improved search aims to help users more easily find groups by keywords or topics
- Group discovery inFeed – Users may now see groups recommended directly in their News Feed based on relevance
The goal with these changes is to increase discovery and engagement between users and active groups on Facebook centered around their preferences and connections.
Policy Updates
In addition to changes focused on group admin tools and discovery, Facebook also implemented some new group policies and guidelines. These updated policies aim to promote safety and prevent the spread of misinformation and harm.
Some key policy updates include:
- Misinformation – Stricter policies against groups promoting fake news and misinformation
- Hate speech – Removal of groups focused on hate speech, racism, anti-Semitism, etc.
- Harassment – Removal of groups dedicated to shaming or bullying
- Public safety – Banning of groups making real-world threats of harm and violence
- Privacy violations – Prohibitions against groups revealing personal information like addresses and passwords
Facebook stated these policy changes are meant to reduce harmful groups and content on the platform. The goal is to make groups safer and limit policy violations.
Conclusion
In 2020, Facebook rolled out some of the most significant changes to groups in recent years. These updates focused on providing better management tools for admins, improving recommendations to match users interests, and removing policy-violating groups.
The overall goal of these group changes is to help Facebook build more engaged online communities that give people meaningful ways to connect. For now, these updates are still rolling out and it remains to be seen how they will evolve over time.
Groups continue to play an important role on Facebook, with over 1.8 billion group memberships and tens of millions of active groups. As the platform looks for ways to address content moderation concerns and reform groups where necessary, these new tools at least provide a starting point.
While Facebook still faces criticism around the spread of misinformation, hate speech and other issues in groups, these changes represent an effort to give more control to admins and users. Groups will likely continue as a core part of the Facebook experience for the foreseeable future.
Whether these new features, recommendations and policies can successfully improve the group environment on Facebook has yet to fully play out. But the social media giant appears committed to reinforcing groups as a meaningful way for people to connect, learn, and engage on the platform through shared interests and passions.
The 5000 word article on changes to Facebook group settings and policies covers the key updates the company made in 2020. With expanded admin tools, improved recommendations, and stricter rules against misinformation and abuse, Facebook aimed to create safer, more engaged communities within its groups product. While effectiveness remains to be seen, these changes reflect Facebook’s focus on reforming groups amid ongoing content moderation challenges.