Facebook Group Admins Can Now 'Automatically Decline' Misleading Posts Identified by Third-Party Checkers

Joseph Henry, Tech Times 10 March 2022, 03:03 am

Facebook misinformation is rampant across several groups and pages and it only aggravates the fact-checking landscape when people share misleading posts without them knowing.

Apparently, Meta is making a fresh move to combat the spread of fake information on the platform by rolling out a new tool for group admins.

With the new update, the FB communities will now be safer and fallacious posts will be "automatically" declined before they enter in the groups.

Facebook Rolls Out Anti-Misinformation Tools

Facebook Group Admins Can Now 'Automatically Decline' Misleading Posts Identified by Third-Party Checkers

(Photo : Meta)
Admin Assist

According to the latest blog by Meta posted on Wednesday, March 9, the new features will assist the Facebook admins to filter the malicious news, posts, or articles that contribute to the piling misinformation in the social media space.

With the arrival of these tools, the social media giant aims to transform toxic groups into a safer and healthier platform for discussion and idea-sharing.

The report suggested that Facebook will now give the admins the ability to automatically decline posts that are detected as "false information" by the third-party checkers.

This means that a post that is flagged as misleading will be immediately blocked by the group handlers before they enter the group thanks to the "Admin Assist" tool. This would also lessen the presence of misinformation and disinformation in different communities.

Furthermore, the previous functionality called "mute" is now revamped to "suspend." With that being said, the group admins can now impose a "temporary" suspension on every participant. They will be barred from leaving a comment, sharing a post, reacting, and even entering a group Room.

To make it more efficient for the admins, a new desktop overview page is there for a quick and simple evaluation of posts.

There's also a layout update for easy sorting of tasks, in addition to the mobile insights summary which will be a useful tool for admins who want to take a peek at the group engagement.

Meta Brings QR Code, Invitation For Group Request

Aside from bringing new tools to prevent the spread of false information on Facebook, the tech firm is also introducing a fresh set of features to increase the reach for the "relevant" participants.

To stay more connected and intact with the community, Facebook now allows QR codes that are accessible from the Share Menu. The group admins can download them and share them with other people.

They can be scanned by participants who want to enter the group so they would gather information about the page that they like to join.

Besides the QR codes, the group invitation is now made easier through "send invites via email" that group admins can send to people who are interested in participating in community discussions and polls.

Engadget wrote in another report that this recent change can give more choices for admins to approve the new members in the group. They could look first to several criteria like the users' age or mutual friends as part of the approval process.

In connection to this report, Tech Times reported that a 2021 study concluded that misleading FB posts have more engagements than factual reports.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry