Facebook introduces new content moderation tools for group admins

Facebook is launching several new tools to empower community builders, based on feedback from group admins. 

The social media platform will introduce an Admin Home - a destination for all admin tools, settings and features that admins can tailor to their needs. With the new experience, admins can quickly see what needs attention across posts, members and reported comments. They can also find key tools through a clearer, reorganised layout and access new features that are rolled out in the future.  

Facebook is also introducing comment moderation to Admin Assist, allowing admins to set up criteria to automatically moderate both posts and comments. Admins will now have the ability to restrict people based on several options, such as how long they’ve had a Facebook account or how long they have been a member of the group.

Admins can also reduce promotional content by declining posts and comments with specific links, with the ability to provide feedback for the author, so they can edit their post and re-submit it for review. Using the suggested criteria from Facebook to help defend the group against spam, maintain positive discussions and resolve conflicts within the group, admins can change and refine the group criteria or undo specific actions from Admin Assist. 

Using AI to detect and notify admins when there may be contentious or unhealthy conversations in their group, Facebook is also testing a new type of moderation alert called conflict alerts. 

Admins can also temporarily limit how often specific group members can comment, and control how often comments can be made on certain posts that admins select in situations where it may be helpful to slow down a conversation.

Facebook will also introduce a new member summary feature so that admins can see a consolidated summary of each group member’s activity in the group. They can now appeal violations for content that will be reviewed by Facebook.

Admins and moderators can now tag group rules in comments and posts. Members can also tag specific group rules when they report posts and comments to admins to help with community moderation simpler. 

Over the last few months, Facebook has also updated its admin tools based on specific feedback from the admin community. This includes features such as pinned comments, admin announcement notifications among others.

Facebook held their first Facebook Communities Summit in Chicago four years ago, where it announced its updated company mission with hundreds of group admins, and shared new features to nurture its communities on Facebook.  

According to the social media platform, there are an estimated more than 70 million active admins and moderators running Facebook groups around the world, with their actions at the heart of Facebook’s mission of building community and bringing the world closer together. 

Facebook said it is important for admins to be able to set, shape and reinforce a community’s culture, with understanding who their members are and setting clear rules and norms for the community to follow at the center.

Earlier this year in January, Facebook redesigned its Pages experience to reshape the way that brands, public figures and creators build communities and manage their businesses. Later on in April, the tech giant rolled out a beta test on both Facebook and Instagram by hiding like counts for a small group of people, to understand if it lessens some pressure when posting to the platform.

It also extended its We Think Digital global programme to Hong Kong, which is a multi-phase awareness and educational campaign to help Hong Kong’s internet users navigate the online world safely and responsibly. The programme, created in partnership with Agent of Change Foundation and The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Media 21 along with a diverse group of supporting organisations, features a range of online and offline initiatives and aims cultivate responsible digital citizens with complete digital literacy.

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