Facebook Rolling Out New Features To Control Community Standard Violations
Facebook is rolling out a new set of features aimed at cracking down on those who violate community standard policies in an attempt to improve safety and restore its tarnished image.
In a post on Wednesday, Facebook announced it had revamped its “Remove, Reduce and Inform” plan to address the harassment, hate speech and false content that continues to appear on its site. Most of the changes are global and would take effect immediately.
Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, and Tessa Lyons, Facebook’s head of News Feed integrity, explained elements of the plan, which included expanding its fact-checking program and reducing the reach of Groups that repeatedly violate terms.
The company will also add Trust Indicators to the Context Button, which will “provide clarity on a news organization’s ethics and other standards for fairness and accuracy.”
The social network will be also hold Group administrators more accountable for community violations, adding that in the next few weeks, it will begin reviewing Groups and deciding whether or not to take some down based on any violations the Group may have committed.
The post said one way that Facebook would continue to fight the spread of misinformation would be working with third-party fact-checkers like The Associated Press.
“When people in a group repeatedly share content that has been rated false by independent fact-checkers, we will reduce that group’s overall News Feed distribution,” the post said.
In addition, the tech giant will reduce the reach of Groups that routinely share misinformation.
Also being introduced is a “click-gap” feature, which will suppress domains that receive significantly more traffic on Facebook than elsewhere on the web.
“This can be a sign that the domain is succeeding on News Feed in a way that doesn’t reflect the authority they’ve built outside it and is producing low-quality content,” the post explained.
The post also pointed out that there will be a new section on the Community Standards site where users can track all of the updates Facebook makes each month.
Facebook is rolling out new features to crack down on content violations as misinformation spreads https://t.co/vbJgqZ89Hu
— CNBC (@CNBC) April 10, 2019
In addition, Instagram will reduce the reach of posts that are “inappropriate” but do not violate community standards.
“For example, a sexually suggestive post will still appear in Feed if you follow the account that posts it, but this type of content may not appear for the broader community in Explore or hashtag pages,” the post clarified.
The company will also launch a Messaging Settings and an Updated Block feature for users to have greater control over what appears in their News Feed.
