Mashable's Flynn wondered if this focus on groups will create more of what people call echo chambers and newsfeeds that just conform to a user's political mindset based on the groups they join.
Mark Zuckerberg has announced a new mission statement for Facebook.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated on Thursday, June 22 that the company is very close to achieving two billion users.
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Zuckerberg said he realizes that Facebook needs to do more than just connect people.
Zuckerberg and the Facebook team believe one of the ways to encourage community building is through the platform's Groups feature.
Facebook acknowledged that the group admins are the real community leaders on its platform.
"In the previous year, the complexity of the issues we've seen has outstripped our existing processes for governing the community", Zuckerberg wrote, pointing to incidents like the removal of a famous Vietnam War photograph and the live police shooting video of Philando Castile (both of which were later returned to the site).
Presently, only a fraction of the almost 2 billion people who use Facebook are members of a group that they would call "meaningful". "I left impressed by your strength and resilience to build a new life in an unfamiliar place, and you are a powerful reminder of why this country is so great", he concluded.
Lobbyist wounded in GOP baseball shooting leaves hospital
The FBI said, however, that it does not believe that the photographs were taken to surveil targets at this point. Analysis of the shooter's phone and email account is still ongoing, the Federal Bureau of Investigation stated.
The tools include a way to remove past posts by "bad actors" if they're booted from a group, a streamlined way to batch-sort members requesting access and a set of analytics to track group engagement, Facebook said in a post detailing the changes.
Virtual communities "can fill a fundamental need we have for a sense of belonging, much like eating or sleeping", said Anita Blanchard, a University of North Carolina at Charlotte professor of psychology who has been studying them for 20 years. Moreover, with another removed clean-up tool groups admins can delete and remove any person and content from their group with only one step. Hate groups like white power organizations use Facebook groups openly, and will continue to exist in the future.
Facebook will bring the world together.
Its goal was for empowering the various admin leaders on active Facebook groups by introducing a series of new management tools for their exclusive use.
Such moves, though, could raise thorny questions about privacy and Facebook's broadening reach into its users' lives.
"Because of Facebook, and because it's free, it gives you a level playing field with forces that can pay to get marketing and lobbying out there", said DeFilippi.
As the brand-centric News Feed atrophies, Groups will take its place, and their posts will likely start showing up more on Facebook's starting page.
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