Days before the presidential election, Facebook has temporarily paused its algorithmic recommendation of groups dealing with political or social issues. It’s unclear when Facebook enacted this measure, and it was not publicly announced, BuzzFeed News reported on Friday. At a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was questioned by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey about Facebook group recommendations ahead of the election. Zuckerberg told Markey that “we have taken the step of stopping recommendations in groups for all political content or social issue groups as a precaution for this.”
The Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing, at which Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai also testified, partly focused on Facebook’s role in election influence — the spread of disinformation, foreign interference, and the harboring of militant civilian groups. Zuckerberg vowed that Facebook also had safeguards in place for post-election unrest.
Facebook’s discovery algorithm is a core feature of Zuckerberg’s self-described mission to connect people across the world. However, Facebook groups have also been a hotbed for misinformation, conspiracy theories, and targeted harassment. Just three months before the presidential election, for example, Facebook announced it had removed hundreds of groups and pages affiliated with U.S. militias.
Many militia groups now gather on other online platforms like Zello and MeWe, as OneZero reported earlier this week. Read that story below:
