Facebook will permanently stop recommending political and civic groups to users, a dramatic change following one of the most divisive electoral seasons in history, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors on Wednesday.
“There has been a trend across society that a lot of things have become politicized and politics have had a way of creeping into everything,” Zuckerberg said, according to Axios. “A lot of the feedback we see from our community is that people don’t want that in their experience.”
“If people want to discuss [politics] or join those groups, they should be able to do that,” he continued. “But we are not serving the community well to be recommending that content right now.”
The move comes after the fallout from the 2020 election, when former President Donald Trump and his surrogates used social media to bolster lies of rampant voter fraud and to falsely claim that Trump had defeated Joe Biden. Biden, who was inaugurated earlier this month, won by more than 7 million votes, and Trump was permanently kicked off several social media platforms, including Twitter.
Facebook enacted an indefinite ban of the former president from its services, including Instagram. People can create public Facebook groups around shared interests, and anyone on the site can find and join them.
“There has been a trend across society that a lot of things have become politicized and politics have had a way of creeping into everything,” Zuckerberg said, according to Axios. “A lot of the feedback we see from our community is that people don’t want that in their experience.”
“If people want to discuss [politics] or join those groups, they should be able to do that,” he continued. “But we are not serving the community well to be recommending that content right now.”
The move comes after the fallout from the 2020 election, when former President Donald Trump and his surrogates used social media to bolster lies of rampant voter fraud and to falsely claim that Trump had defeated Joe Biden. Biden, who was inaugurated earlier this month, won by more than 7 million votes, and Trump was permanently kicked off several social media platforms, including Twitter.
Facebook enacted an indefinite ban of the former president from its services, including Instagram. People can create public Facebook groups around shared interests, and anyone on the site can find and join them.
