Social networking giant Facebook has announced new measures to keep its Groups safe.
“These measures are intended to help slow down the reach of those looking to use our platform for harmful purposes and build on existing restrictions we’ve put in place over the last year,” said Facebook in a blog post.
These changes will roll out globally over the coming months.
What all is changing
Facebook has said that in case the company finds that a group has started violating its rules, it will start showing them lower recommendations, which means it’s less likely that people will discover them.
The company will also restrict the “privileges and reach” of groups and members that violate the rules until it “removes them completely.”
In case a user is about to join a group that has been found to violate rules, Facebook will warn them about it. Also, it will limit invite notifications for these groups, so people are less likely to join.
As for the existing members of such groups, it will reduce the distribution of that group’s content so that it is shown lower in the News Feed.
Admins will be required to temporarily approve all posts when that group has a substantial number of members who have violated the rules and if an admin or moderator repeatedly approves content that breaks the rules, it will then remove the group.
Lastly, in case the company finds that a user has repeated violations in groups, it will block them from being able to post or comment for a period of time in any group. They also won’t be able to invite others to any groups, and won’t be able to create new groups.