Meta is increasing its momentum in the fight against misinformation on Facebook. The tech giant has rolled out a number of features designed to help Facebook group admins reduce misinformation while also keeping members secure.
The Ukraine crisis has intensified the tech giant’s fight against misinformation even though Russia blocked Facebook from operating in the country last week.
Kenya is preparing for elections on August 9, and many leaders have been known to form groups and build social media accounts in the hopes of wooing the public to their political parties. During election season, the risk of disinformation is higher, demanding tougher rules and restrictions applied manually or automatically.
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To begin, Meta is introducing a new feature that will allow group administrators to automatically reject incoming postings that have been recognized as containing misleading information. The automated process will make it easier for moderators to weed out posts containing misinformation as they will no longer have to do it manually, or go through a fact-checking process before the removal of such posts.
The option might not appeal to all Facebook admins, as some will still prefer to go through the posts and make their own decisions regarding the information shared. However, bigger groups that are prone to misinformation could find the feature quite handy in aiding the moderation process.
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Meta also said that the popular feature ‘mute’ which prevents users from posting or commenting on posts in the group will now be renamed ‘suspend’.
“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.” Facebook said in a post.
Meta is also enhancing the capabilities of its groups Admin Assist to automatically approve or reject member requests based on particular, manually-assigned criteria. For instance, whether the potential member has answered all of the prerequisite membership questions. This will help reduce the normal manual workload of approving and rejecting members and fast-track responses for interested members.
Read also: Facebook Claims to have Taken Down Misinformation Network Following Ukraine Crisis
Finally, Meta is introducing several new community-building tools, including QR codes for Facebook Groups and a new ability to invite individuals to your group via email. Interested parties will now be able to join a group by simply scanning a QR code using their phone’s camera.
“When scanned, people will be directed to the group’s About page where you can join or request to join.”
In addition, users will also be send group invites via email, making it easier to net in people in their email lists, even if they are not Facebook friends.
Facebook has seen dwindling numbers in the recent past as more people prefer other socialmedia platforms. However, Facebook groups have remained popular, and it makes sense that the tech giant is focusing on enhancing them.
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