Facebook is instituting new rules to help prevent misinformation.
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Facebook is putting on probation groups whose posts consistently violate the social network’s community standards, the company said Saturday, a move that’s part of its broader attempts to stop misinformation in the wake of the bitterly fought US election.
Administrators and moderators of political and social groups that run afoul of the rules will be required to approve each post individually. The manual process will remain in effect for 60 days and can’t be appealed or overridden.
If Facebook repeatedly sees violating posts after the manual approval process starts, the company may remove the group.
“We are temporarily requiring admins and moderators of some political and social groups in the US to approve all posts, if their group has a number of Community Standards violations from members — a measure we’re taking in order to protect people during this unprecedented time,” said Leonard Lam, a Facebook spokesperson.
The new policy, reported earlier by The Washington Post, comes as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites battle a wave of misinformation prompted by an unusually contentious presidential campaign. Earlier this week, the world’s largest social network shut down a huge group called the Stop the Steal, which falsely claimed Democrats were trying to rob Republican President Donald Trump of the presidency.
Major news organizations called the election for Democrat Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, his running mate, on Saturday morning.
