Facebook has dealt with a ton of controversy over the past few years with how it has handled the spread of misinformation on its platform, especially with regards to the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, Facebook's parent company Meta announced new guidelines and features on Wednesday for group admins to reduce misinformation, including the ability to automatically delete posts containing false information before it even hits a user's news feed.
The announcement comes after the company restricted some Russian state media outlets from the platform amid its invasion of Ukraine. In response, Russia decided to block people's access to Facebook completely on March 4, per CNBC.
For group admins to access the new feature to delete misinformation posts, they are instructed to add the ability through the Admin Assist settings.
"Incoming posts that contain content rated by third-party fact-checkers as false are declined before they are seen in the group, which helps reduce the visibility of misinformation," Meta said.
Additionally, group admins of pages can now suspend members permanently instead of just muting them.
Here's how to do it: If you're a page administrator, go to the Admin Assist settings, and there are now three actions that can be taken to stop misinformation posts in your group: You can decline the incoming post, decline the incoming post and suspend the author, or decline the incoming post and block the author entirely from the group.
The group admin can temporarily block a user for a set number of days or permanently ban them. If the group admin elects to block the author, then that person would no longer be able to see, find, or re-join the group.
Admins can also choose to automatically approve or decline requests from certain users using new advanced settings.
Those settings are part of what Meta announced, among other updates, including a new overview home page on desktops, an update to the layout, and an engagement insights page on mobile for admins to monitor their groups.
The last new feature for admins to help operate their groups is the introduction of QR codes that let users directly open a group's page. There is also the option to now send group invites via email.
"Admins can download or copy and paste from the Share menu and share as they like," Meta said. "When scanned, people will be directed to the group’s About page where you can join or request to join."
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