Facebook changes aim to better experience, trust

Faith and trust in the social media giant Facebook is dwindling. 

In 2020, a survey by The Verge and Vox Media polled more than 1,500 people and out of that only 40 percent of respondents said they trust Facebook with their information. The survey also found that the lack of trust might be correlated with its size and privacy policies.

A year earlier, a Pew Research study showed more than half of Facebook users said they are not comfortable with Facebook maintaining a list of users’ traits and interests.

On March 17, Tom Alison, the VP of Engineering at Facebook, posted a blog called "Changes to Keep Facebook Groups Safe." (Click here to read the full post)

Facebook's Groups tool is at the heart of why social media was created in the first place: to create a group of people with similar interests, backgrounds, etc. As Facebook and social media evolved, the value of advertising on social media greatly increased as well. Thus, that began the idea of tracking user activity to help marketers target potential customers, especially with digital advertising.

Over the years, the depth of information being tracked kept growing. It also led to Facebook developing algorithms that helped prioritize content based on users' preferences and interests.

Now because of growing concerns over privacy and who has what information and what they're doing with it, social media companies such as Facebook are coming under fire for that.

In Alison's blog post, he said, "It’s important to us that people can discover and engage safely with Facebook groups so that they can connect with others around shared interests and life experiences. That’s why we’ve taken action to curb the spread of harmful content, like hate speech and misinformation, and made it harder for certain groups to operate or be discovered, whether they’re Public or Private. When a group repeatedly breaks our rules, we take it down entirely."

Alison also said, "As behaviors evolve on our platform, though, we recognize we need to do more. This is why we recently removed civic and political groups, as well as newly created groups, from recommendations in the US."

What sets Groups apart from the newsfeed is that advertising isn't made within Groups. In addition, Groups moderators have control of content, rather than computers or math formulas.

Again, it goes back to Groups being in control of their content so they can engage in content that's relevant to them without outside interference.

Alison said, "There is always more to do to keep Facebook Groups safe, and we will continue to build and invest to make sure people can rely on these places for connection and support."