Threatening Bans, Facebook Will Now Require Moderation For Groups Spreading Misinformation

“While the election may have now been called for Joe Biden, our misinformation nightmare is far from over,” quips Mashable: As unsubstantiated pro-Trump conspiracies about election fraud continue to spread on the internet, Facebook is taking further action with Facebook Groups, a feature that is often weaponized by misinformation spreaders. According to Facebook, the social networking company will now put certain problematic Facebook Groups in “probation” periods. During this 60-day timeframe, all posts to these groups must be manually approved by a group’s administrators or moderators. A group will be placed in this probationary state if the company finds that many of its posts are violating its community standards policies. There will be no appeals process for the probation period. All groups, whether public or private, are subject to probation. If policy violation problems continue to persist within these groups during the probationary period, Facebook will ban the group. A Facebook spokesperson tells CNET these actions are being taken “temporarily…in order to protect people during this unprecedented time.”