Zuckerberg did not specify exactly how Facebook could adjust the news feed or detailed how it would determine what it considers “political”. He was quick to point out that he was still committed to “freedom of expression” and did not want to limit users ‘ability to express political opinions, but that the company would respond to users’ feedback by indicating that political content is not popular.
Of course, politics fights have been the mainstay of most users’ News Feed for much of Facebook’s 15 years of existence. And it is unclear how much Facebook will be able to influence the behavior of its users – many of whom already believe that the company censors views they disagree with.
But it is another sign that Facebook wants to lower the temperature on its platform after the 2020 elections and the subsequent violence in Washington DC. Facebook has faced criticism for the role its platform played in the United States Capitol riot.
Here are Zuckerberg’s full comments on political groups and content in the News Feed:
“As we continue to focus on this, we need to ensure that the communities that people connect with are healthy and positive. This is something we’ve been focusing on for some time. One way to do this is to overthrow groups that violate our rules against acts like violence or hate speech. In September, we shared that we had removed more than 1 million groups in the past year alone. But there are also many groups that we don’t want to encourage people to participate in, even if they don’t violate our policies.
For example, we stopped recommending civic and political groups in the US before the elections. We continue to refine how it works, but now we plan to keep civic and political groups out of the long-term recommendations and expand this globally. To be clear, this is a continuation of the work we have been doing for some time to lower the temperature and discourage conversations and divisive communities.
In the same vein, we are also considering measures that we could take to reduce the amount of political content in the News Feed as well. We are still trying to figure out exactly the best way to do this. And to be clear, it is clear that we will still allow people to participate in political groups and discussions if they want to. This can often be important and useful. They can be ways of organizing grassroots movements, speaking out against injustice or learning from people with different perspectives. So, we want these discussions to keep going. But one of the main comments that we are hearing from our community at the moment is that people do not want politics and struggle to appropriate their experience in our services ”.
Updated to add additional quotes from Mark Zuckerberg.