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Facebook to restrict groups that break its rules

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Responding to claims that it has driven some of its users to harmful extremism, Facebook announced Wednesday that it will restrict the reach of user groups and individuals that break its rules, NBC reports.

Facebook’s new rules will apply to its tens of millions of active groups, NBC said. The company will place groups that breach the rules lower down its recommendations bar, so they will be harder to find. If a group continues to break rules, more restrictions will be applied and the group may ultimately be removed from the platform.

Facebook also plans to show a pop-up warning individuals who are considering joining groups that have been flagged: the pop-up will explain that the group in question “allowed posts that violate [Facebook’s] Community Standards,” NBC reports.

In addition, the new rules will require admins and moderators of groups to approve all posts before publishing when they have members that violate Facebook policies. If moderators continue to allow prohibited content, the group will be removed. This strategy will also apply to groups made up of members of a group that has already been flagged. Group members who repeatedly breach Facebook’s community policy will be blocked from posting or commenting in any group and will be banned from starting a new group.

In a blog post, Facebook’s vice president of engineering, Tom Alison, said that the changes to how the social media giant manages groups are part of an effort to deal with claims that it has allowed misinformation and harmful content to proliferate across the platform. “We know we have a greater responsibility when we are amplifying or recommending content,” Alison said. “As behaviors evolve on our platform, though, we recognize we need to do more.”