Facebook penalizes violating group members
The Facebook platform attempts to regulate the experience of group members and limit access to potentially problematic users and communities.
The company announced multiple changes to groups, including plans to put users who break the rules under surveillance, further limit access to civic and political groups, and require more oversight in groups that violate Facebook's rules.
And group members who break Facebook's rules suffer various new consequences. People with frequent violations are initially prevented from posting or commenting in any group for a certain period of time.
A Facebook spokesperson said: This time it could be either seven or 30 days, depending on the number and severity of the violations, and they will also not be able to invite other people to any groups or create new ones.
One of the biggest changes concerns members who break the rules, as a warning sign is being added to groups with multiple violations.
When a user tries to join one of these groups, he receives a disclaimer stating that the group has violated community standards, which may discourage him from joining, and Facebook also limits invitation notices for these groups.
And for existing members, the company is working to reduce the distribution of group content, which means it is shown less in the news feed.
Moderators for these disrespectful groups must temporarily approve all posts when the group has a large number of members who have violated policies or were part of other groups removed for breaking the rules.
And if those admins agree to everything, even content that breaks the rules, the entire group is deleted.
As a broader update, Facebook began removing civil and political groups earlier this year, as well as newly established groups, from recommendations in the United States.
Facebook has received a lot of criticism for allowing extremist political groups, as well as groups that spread conspiracy theories or anti-extremist rhetoric, to thrive on its platform.
Members of the group that plotted to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer used Facebook groups to organize, according to FBI testimony.
It has failed in the past in its attempts to limit access to political groups, as policy recommendations continue to appear to users.
These new rules may discourage some people from misbehaving or limit their time across the platform, but there is always an opportunity to create a new account or get around the rules without violating them.