More than a year after failing its first civil rights audit, Meta says it’s still working on a number of changes recommended by auditors. The company released an update detailing its progress on addressing the auditors' many recommendations.
According to the company, it has already implemented 65 of the 117 recommendations, with another 42 listed as ”in progress or ongoing.” However, there are six areas where the company says it is still determining the “feasibility” of making changes and two recommendations where the company has “declined” to take further action. And, notably, some of these deal with the most contentious issues called out in the original 2020 audit.
That original report, released in July of 2020, found the company needed to do more to stop "pushing users toward extremist echo chambers." It also said the company needed to address issues related to algorithmic bias, and criticized the company’s handling of Donald Trump’s posts. In its latest update, Meta says it still hasn’t committed to all the changes the auditors called for related to algorithmic bias. The company has implemented some changes, like engaging with outside experts and increasing the diversity of its AI team, but says other changes are still “under evaluation.”
Specifically, the auditors called for a mandatory, company-wide process for “to avoid, identify, and address potential sources of bias and discriminatory outcomes when developing or deploying AI and machine learning models” and that it “regularly test existing algorithms and machine-learning models.” Meta said the recommendation is “under evaluation.” Likewise, the audit also recommended “mandatory training on understanding and mitigating sources of bias and discrimination in AI for all teams building algorithms and machine-learning models.” That suggestion is also listed as “under evaluation,” according to Meta.
The company also says some updates related to content moderation are also “under evaluation.” These include a recommendation to improve the “transparency and consistency” of decisions related to moderation appeals, and a recommendation that the company study more aspects of how hate speech spreads, and how it can use that data to address targeted hate more quickly. The auditors also recommended that Meta “disclose additional data” about which users are being targeted with voter suppression on its platform. That recommendation is also “under evaluation.”
The only two recommendations that Meta outright declined were also related to elections and census policies. “The Auditors recommended that all user-generated reports of voter interference be routed to content reviewers to make a determination on whether the content violates our policies, and that an appeals option be added for reported voter interference content,” Meta wrote. But the company said it opted not to make those changes because it would slow down the review process, and because “the vast majority of content reported as voter interference does not violate the company’s policies.”
Separately, Meta also said it’s working on a “a framework for studying our platforms and identifying opportunities to increase fairness when it comes to race in the United States.” To accomplish this, the company will conduct “off-platform surveys” and analyze its own data using surnames and zip codes.
Last week, Twitter’s “premium” subscription service made its debut in the United States. Twitter Blue is a $3 monthly subscription that buys subscribers access to additional features, like an undo button and ad-free news articles.
For now, Twitter Blue comes with a fairly limited set of extra features designed for the people who spend the most time on the service. According to Twitter’s Sara Beukpour, this group includes “verified longtime Twitter users” as well as “news lovers” and other “super tweeters.” In other words: the 25 percent of Twitter’s user base who send 97 percent of all tweets.
“I actually bet many of them are you,” Beykpour said during a briefing with a group of tech reporters last week. Of course I signed up immediately.
And after a little more than a week with Twitter Blue, I’m not sure it’s worth $3 a month for most people. The features are mostly useful, but it’s frustrating that not everything works the same way across Twitter’s app and website. But there are undoubtedly useful features, and I am intrigued by what might come next for “premium Twitter.” For now, though, here’s a look at what $3 buys you.
‘Undo’ tweets
Of all the features in Twitter Blue, the “undo” button has gotten the most hype. Twitter will likely never give us an actual edit button, so this is probably the closest we’ll ever get. And if you’re prone to typos or tweeting-and-then-instantly-regretting, this feature alone might be worth the subscription. I say might because the “undo” can also be incredibly confusing, and doesn’t always work as you expect.
It’s supposed to work pretty much like Gmail’s “undo send” feature. After you hit “send,” you’ll have a few seconds when you can see the tweet you just wrote, but it hasn’t actually been published. If you change your mind for whatever reason, you can hit “undo,” which takes you back to the tweet in the compose screen. Twitter gives you the ability to set how long this window is — it can range from 5 seconds to a full 60 seconds — and you can always opt to send it before the window runs out with an extra click.
Screenshot / Twitter
But undoing a tweet doesn’t always work the same way across Twitter’s app and website. On Twitter’s app, you can use the “undo” feature for almost any type of tweet: original tweets (tweets sent from the main compose window), replies, threads, quote tweets and polls. Essentially, you can “undo” almost anything you tweet, anywhere in the app. But that’s not the case on twitter.com, where the undo function only works with original tweets and replies, but not with quote tweets or threads. Unless you exclusively tweet from your phone, this means you have to remember which tweets are editable undoable and which aren't. A typo-ridden tweet can be undone, but an ill-advised quote tweet cannot.
There’s also the fact that it can take several steps to actually undo a tweet. In Twitter’s app, the default setting is that the first thing you see after you mash the tweet button is your tweet and an “undo” button. This gives you plenty of time to give it another read, even if you have a relatively short undo “window.” But on Twitter’s website, you can only undo by looking for a “view tweet” dialog at the bottom of the page and then navigating to the page with your tweet and the undo button.
Sometimes, "view tweet" doesn't appear at all, and the only way to access the "undo" is to navigate to your profile and look for the pending tweet on your timeline. Not only is this a confusing extra step, but it also makes it harder to take advantage of the undo button at all. Is it still useful to have? I guess, but the unpredictability of it kind of gave me more anxiety than just not having it at all.
Reader mode and bookmark folders
The reader mode is probably the most underrated feature of Twitter Blue, and the one I’d argue would be most useful for all the site’s users, not just those willing to pay. It converts long threads into a much more readable stream of text, much like a browser’s reader view would. I hate those intrusive (and ethically dubious) third-party thread apps that “unroll” tweets into separate websites, but there’s a reason why those services are so popular: lengthy threads are difficult to read. Twitter’s service was never designed for essay-length tweet storms, and long threads are often cut off. Reader mode is a simple solution that is so effective I can’t believe it took them this long to make.
Screenshot / Twitter
It’s even better when paired with another new feature: bookmark folders. Now, when I come across an impossibly long tweetstorm I want to come back to later, I simply add it to my “to read” folder and keep scrolling. Except, again, bookmark folders are for now only supported in Twitter’s app. Head over to twitter.com and all your bookmarks are still a mess.
Ad-free news and ‘top articles’
My favorite Twitter Blue feature — and a large part of the reason why I will likely continue handing over $3 each month for it — is the “top articles” feature. The feature shows you a list of all the most-shared news articles by people in your Twitter network over the last 24 hours. If that sounds at all familiar, it’s because the feature is Twitter’s nod to Nuzzel, a once independent news app that also created feeds of articles based on what was being shared by people you follow on Twitter. But the original app was shut down when Twitter acquired Scroll, the news startup that had previously bought Nuzzel.
And while “Top Articles'' doesn't have all the functionality Nuzzel once did, it’s enough to scratch the itch for former fans of the app (a group that seems to be almost entirely made up of journalists as far as I can tell). But even if you never used Nuzzel, Top Articles is useful. It gives you a quick digest of what the people you follow are reading and tweeting about. Or, you know, you can just use it to figure out who is the main character of the day.
Screenshot / Twitter
Twitter’s acquisition of Scroll also powers another significant part of Twitter Blue: ad-free news articles. Scroll (and now Twitter) formed partnerships with hundreds of news outlets in order to offer ad-free browsing in exchange for a portion of users’ subscription fees. Now, Twitter lets subscribers view how much their own browsing has directed to those publishers. It’s an intriguing concept, and one that won Scroll a lot of praise before it was bought by Twitter.
It’s also the aspect of Twitter Blue I’m most curious to watch. As it stands now, it can feel a little disjointed. While stripping out ads is nice, it doesn’t include access to paywalled content, so it can be jarring to see an “ad-free with Twitter Blue” banner only to hit a paywall. However, Twitter has hinted that it may one day pursue more ways to access paywalled content — and a message in the app says paywall access isn’t included “right now” — so there’s good reason to hope that may one day change.
Early access to new features and customization
Twitter has gotten much more public with the features it experiments with in recent years. The company at one point had a separate beta version of the app it used to try out new tweaks. That app is no longer available, but the “labs” feature of Twitter Blue feels in some ways like its successor. The company plans to make some experimental features available to Twitter Blue subscribers first, before deciding whether they should become full-fledged features available to more people.
For now, there are only two features that fall into this bucket: the ability to pin specific chats to the top of your DM inbox, and the ability to upload videos of up to 10 minutes (these longer videos are not entirely new, but accounts had to be approved by Twitter in order to have access to the feature). I appreciate having the option to do both, though I haven’t used either feature and I suspect most others won’t either.
Screenshot / Twitter
Finally, Twitter Blue also gives you the ability to make small tweaks to the look and feel of the Twitter app. For example, you can change the app icon or set a new color theme (the “theme” only changes small elements like the color of the tweet composer and the dot that appears when you have a new notification). You can also opt to rearrange the shortcuts in the bottom of the app’s navigation bar, which is kind of cool (especially if you want to, say, banish the Spaces Tab). But, again, these are small details that I can’t imagine most people bothering to change.
Is it worth it?
Whether or not you think all that is worth three bucks a month largely depends on how much you use Twitter (and how willing you are to pay for apps). While I don’t think it makes sense for most people, I think it’s pretty compelling for anyone who depends on Twitter for their job or otherwise falls into that extra-dedicated “super tweeter” category.
And while Twitter hasn’t offered any details around how many subscribers have signed up, the app has made about $180,000 since it first started offering Twitter Blue this summer, according to data provided by analytics firm Sensor Tower. That’s not much money for Twitter, but it does suggest there is a not-totally-insignificant number of people willing to try it out (and the service is still only available in four countries).
At a broader level, Twitter Blue raises important questions about how the company will prioritize new features. While the company has maintained that there will always be a free version of Twitter, it’s not difficult to imagine that the most exciting and useful updates could end up being locked behind a subscription. Twitter spent much of the last decade not really creating any meaningful new features at all, so it still stings a little to see the company add the kinds of features longtime users have long hoped for, only to restrict them to those willing to pay.
Snapchat’s in-app camera is now able to recommend recipes based on the food you have laying around your kitchen. Food Scan is the latest addition to the app’s “scan” functionality, which also allows users to identify plants and dog breeds and items of clothing.
Now, scanning a food will turn up recipes containing the item, as well as a link to the Wikipedia entry for the ingredient. Snap has partnered with allrecipes.com on the feature, which it says can recognize more than 1,200 items and suggest more than 4,500 dishes.
I got the chance to preview the feature, and the app’s food scanning abilities were mostly spot-on. It was able to correctly identify a variety of produce and recommend relevant recipes (including a persimmon bar recipe that looked intriguing). Like most of these types of visual search features, though, it’s not entirely foolproof. It suggested cherry recipes when I scanned a bag of cherry tomatoes. And a hunk of ginger managed to totally stump the feature. No matter what angle I held the camera, Snapchat was unable to recognize it as food, and instead recommended reptile and human hand-themed AR lenses.
The feature is also not meant to work with packaged foods — Snapchat has a separate feature that can scan those items for nutritional info — so it won’t be able to help you figure out what to do with that random can of tomato sauce or whatever else is collecting dust in the back of your pantry. But even with those limitations, the feature is still a useful starting point for when you’re out of ideas or just want to try something new. And, even when it doesn’t quite work, you might still find an entertaining new AR lens to try out.
Spotify could soon be home to a lot more audiobooks. The streaming service has acquired audiobook platform Findaway, the companies announced. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the acquisition suggests Spotify is looking to build out its own library of audiobook titles.
Findaway is an Ohio-based company that boasts a catalog of more than 325,000 titles, according to its website. The company has partnerships with Apple, Amazon and other retail heavyweights, and also makes tools for audiobook creators. While it’s not yet clear how Spotify might integrate Findaway’s catalog into its own service, the company said in a statement that the deal would help it “quickly scale its audiobook catalog” and create new opportunities for authors and publishers.
The acquisition isn’t Spotify’s first foray into audiobooks. The company has previously experimented with a handful of celebrity-narrated public domain classics, and a Harry Potter audiobook at the start of coronavirus lockdowns in 2020. But the acquisition signals the streaming platform now has much greater ambitions in the space. The move also echoes Spotify’s approach to podcasts, as the company used a number ofacquisitions to build out its catalog and creation tools. So while it’s so far unclear what exactly Findaway means for Spotify subscribers and would-be audiobook listeners, it seems there are a lot more audiobooks in the company’s future.
Whether you’re serious about snow sports, or a weekend resort-goer, there’s always more ways to get the most out of your time on the mountain. Apps and gadgets that keep track of your laps around the resort can help you up your game, no matter your skill level. And gear to protect your phone and can keep an epic powder day from turning into “the day you dropped your phone off a chairlift.”
Or, you can give my favorite gift: the gift of heat. Because as much as I love a day on the mountain, I hate being cold. You can layer up all you want, but some gear really benefits from an extra, battery-powered boost of heat.
Burton Toaster boot liners
Will Lipman Photography for Engadget / Burton
The only thing worse than cold fingers are cold toes — especially when you're strapped into snowboard bindings. Burton’s Toaster boot liners might look like the typical boot lines, but they have tiny built in heaters that can keep your toes warm and, even more importantly, dry, for up to five hours at a time. The liners come in mens and women’s sizes, and are meant to be compatible with any existing Burton boot, so you can upgrade your existing setup without buying a whole new pair.
Will Lipman Photography for Engadget / Hangtime Gear
At least half my time spent on the mountain is riding chairlifts (thanks, Slopes), which means I inevitably pull out my phone on the lift against my better judgment. I have yet to drop it, though I’ve had a few uncomfortably close calls. That’s where Hangtime Gear’s Koala harness comes in. Simply strap your phone into the harness and clip the leash to a pocket or backpack strap. The extendable leash will give you plenty of slack to take a selfie or pick up a call but will keep your phone from plummeting to an icy death if you accidentally let go.
This may not be the most attractive accessory, but I like this cheap fleece mask better than any other ski mask I’ve tried. The half-mask design means it’s easy to get on and off without messing with your helmet, and the built in ear flaps keep it in place while keeping your ears nice and toasty. I started wearing mine last year when many resorts were requiring guests to mask up in lift lines due to COVID-19. I wasn’t disappointed: the fleece was way more comfortable than the standard cloth or surgical mask, which are pretty miserable in cold or wet conditions. But after wearing it for an entire season, I’m ready to ditch all my other ski masks for good and keep this in my ski bag for seasons to come.
At $500, Ministry of Supply’s Mercury Jacket is definitely one of the pricier pieces of outerwear you can buy, but it’s much more than just a jacket. The Mercury has three, strategically placed carbon fiber heating elements woven into the lining of the jacket. Plug in the included battery back, turn the power switch on — yes, the jacket has a power switch — and they’ll warm up to provide a steady source of cozy heat. That may not sound like something you need every day, but the Mercury is surprisingly versatile. It’s insulated and looks good enough on its own that you can wear it on warmer days, but the heater means you can keep it on even when conditions get colder.
If you’re looking for a high-performance winter glove, it doesn’t get any better than the wind and waterproof Gore-Tex. But while Gore-Tex can keep you dry, it’s not the warmest material, which is why Gore-Tex gloves often come with extra liners for added insulation. But double gloving can be a pain, and sometimes even two gloves isn’t enough to keep the tips of your fingers from going numb. Outdoor Research’s Gripper gloves provides the best of both: Gore-Tex gloves with built-in, adjustable heaters. If that’s too spendy, or you just need a lighter-weight spring glove, we’re also big fans of TrailHeads’ Convertible Mittens. Part fingerless glove, part mitten, the gloves are surprisingly warm considering their lighter weight, and the unique hybrid design makes them easy to get on and off in a pinch.
We all know cold weather is hard on our batteries, and sometimes, even your warmest pockets aren’t insulated enough to save them. Enter Phoozy’s Apollo thermal case: the insulated pouch will keep your phone from getting too cold and should significantly extend your battery life in cold conditions. Better yet, the reflective material — supposedly inspired by the spacesuits worn by astronauts — can also protect your phone from excessive heat so it can be a year round accessory.
If you’re serious about leveling up your skiing abilities, Skeo’s Snowcookie sensor can help you get there. The kit comes with three battery powered sensors: one to wear on a chest harness and one for each ski. The sensors pair to an app on your phone and measure a range of metrics from the angles of your skis and your hips to how your weight is distributed across your skis. When you’re done on the mountain, the app will break down your technique with a detailed analysis and tips for improving.
Slopes has been my go-to app anytime I’m on a mountain for years. Start the ski-tracking app before your first chair and the app records stats like speed and elevation as you ski or board. At the end of the day, the app creates a summary of your day with all your stats. If you want to go deeper, you can even watch a replay of all your runs overlaid onto a resort map so you can see exactly what you did. Even if you only make it out a few times a year, Slopes is a great way to track your season and relive your best days on the mountain year-round.
The Oversight Board has only been up and running for less than a year, but Facebook says it’s already having trouble keeping up with the group’s recommendations. The company says it wants to work with the Oversight Board to “improve the recommendation process,” though it’s not yet clear what those changes might entail. But it suggests Facebook is looking to shake up the way it deals with the independent body it created to oversee its content policies.
In a new report detailing Facebook’s dealings with the Oversight Board, the company notes that it’s made significant changes as the result of the Oversight Board’s recommendations. These changes include updates to how it handles hate speech and nudity, as well as how it determines “newsworthy” content.
But Facebook is now suggesting it wants to change up the recommendation process. “While we have made these important changes as a result of the board’s recommendations, we believe the current design of the recommendation process may not be the best way to bring about the long-term, structural changes the board is pushing us to undertake,” the company writes in its report. “We are working with the board and our internal teams to explore other ways to potentially improve the recommendation process.”
Again, it’s not clear exactly what this means for the Oversight Board or Facebook’s relationship with the group. The Oversight Board didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, and during a call with reporters on Tuesday, Facebook’s Monika Bickert declined to elaborate on specific changes the company was hoping to make.
In its report, Facebook writes that “the pace and volume of the recommendations do not allow us adequate time to initially assess and implement the recommendations.” According to Facebook, most of the board’s recommendations “require over a dozen people to assess feasibility, which we cannot easily complete in 30 days.” the company added that it can take considerable time to determine how to integrate the policy suggestions into its existing product development.
But while it’s not yet clear what will change as a result of Facebook’s proposed “potential changes,” the fact that the company is already trying to make major changes to how it deals with the board is significant. Since its inception, Facebook critics have blasted the Oversight Board as little more than a PR stunt. And while the company has said it will abide by individual content decisions made by the board, its broader policy recommendations are where it could have the greatest influence over the company. For example, the board criticized Facebook’s decision to impose an “indefinite suspension” on former President Donald Trump, and told the company it needed to better define its rules for politicians.
Facebook has even suggested that other platforms should use the Oversight Board to monitor their content policies as well. That the company is now claiming it’s too difficult to keep up with the process its executives and policy officials designed could potentially undermine the influence the board is able to wield.
Facebook has shared new statistics on the amount of bullying, hate speech and harassment on its platform. The new numbers, released with the company’s latest quarterly transparency reports, come as Meta faces increasing scrutiny over its ability to protect users and enforce its policies adequately around the world.
Its latest report marks the first time the company has shared metrics around bullying and harassment on its platform. According to the company. The “prevalence” of this type of content was between 0.14% -0.15% on Facebook and between 0.05%-0.06% on Instagram. “This means bullying and harassment content was seen between 14 and 15 times per every 10,000 views of content on Facebook and between 5 and 6 times per 10,000 views of content on Instagram,” the company explains in a statement. Instagram in particular has faced questions about its ability to deal with bullying and harassment. The company introduced several new anti-bullying measures earlier this year after several UK football players detailed their experience with racist abuse on the app.
Importantly, the company notes that this “prevalence” metric only accounts for content Facebook and Instagram removes without a user report. That means the statistic is only capturing a subset of all bullying content, since bullying and harassment is not always easy for an automated system to identify.
That distinction has been underscored by revelations in the Facebook Papers, a trove of documents made public by former employee turned whistleblower Frances Haugen. According to documents she shared, Facebook’s own researchers estimate that the company is only able to address around three to five percent of hate speech on its platform, meaning the vast majority goes undetected and is allowed to pollute users’ News Feeds.
Facebook has repeatedly pushed back on these claims, and has pointed to the “prevalence” stats it shares in its transparency reports. But as researchers have pointed out, the company’s own accounting of “prevalence” can mask the true amount of violating content on the platform. That’s because Facebook’s automated systems are not always reliable, especially at detecting content in languages other than English. The revelations have fueled allegations that Facebook puts profits ahead of user safety.
“We have absolutely no incentive, whether it's commercial or otherwise, to do anything other than make sure people have a positive experience,” the company’s VP of Integrity, Guy Rosen, said during a call with reporters on Tuesday. “I think it's also just not true that our algorithms are just optimized to squeeze out engagement. We're constantly refining how we do ranking in order to tackle these problems.”
In its latest report, Facebook reported that hate speech had declined for the fourth straight quarter, with prevalence declining from 0.05% last quarter to 0.03% this quarter. The company also reported prevalence of hate speech on Instagram for the first time, saying hate speech was at 0.02% or around 2 out of every 10,000 pieces of content viewed on its platform.
However, it’s worth noting that even the most optimistic take on these numbers — 0.03% and 0.02% for Facebook and Instagram, respectively — can still mean millions of people are encountering hate speech every day, given the vast number of users and pieces of content posted to the platforms each day.
Twitter is expanding its premium subscription service to more users. Twitter Blue, which unlocks additional features like the ability to “undo” a tweet or browse news without ads, is now available to users in the United States ($2.99/month) and New Zealand ($4.49/month).
The service is designed to appeal to Twitter’s most dedicated power users, with the kind of specialized features that have sometimes appeared in third-party Twitter clients. For example, Twitter Blue comes with an “undo” feature that’s likely the closest thing to an edit button the company will ever make.
A subscription also buys several new customization tools, including the ability to rearrange which features appear as shortcuts in the app’s navigation bar, or the option to choose new color themes and app icons. Subscriptions also buy you early access to new features as Twitter tests them out. For now that includes video upload up to 10 minutes long (videos are capped at 2 minutes for non-paying users) and the ability to pin conversations to the top of your DM inbox. These experimental features “might eventually become available to the rest of Twitter, graduate to a feature of Twitter Blue, or sunset based on feedback we hear from subscribers,” the company says.
Twitter
Notably, the latest iteration of Twitter Blue also comes with two new features powered by the company’s recent acquisition of Scroll, a startup that partnered with publishers to offer ad-free content. Twitter Blue subscribers are now able to access ad-free articles from more than 300 publishers, including The Atlantic, BuzzFeed and Rolling Stone.
It’s somewhat similar to Google’s AMP or Facebook’s Instant Articles in that articles are meant to load quickly and cleanly. But unlike those programs, where readers are directed to stripped down article pages, Twitter Blue articles will still open directly on the publisher’s website. Tony Haile, the former Scroll CEO who now is the senior director of longform at Twitter, says the company is trying to build “win-win partnerships” with publishers who retain “complete control of the experience.”
Though the company hasn’t disclosed the terms of these arrangements, a portion of each Twitter Blue subscription goes directly to publishers, Haile said. And subscribers will also get access to a dashboard in the Twitter app that breaks down your news-reading habits and how much revenue your clicks are bringing to the publishers you read most often. “Our goal is to help each publishing partner make 50% more per person than they would’ve made from serving ads to that person.” Twitter writes in a blog post.
Twitter
Finally, Twitter Blue comes with a “top articles” feature that brings in some functionality from the niche but highly regarded news app Nuzzel, which was shuttered earlier this year. Like the original app, the new “top articles” feature will curate a list of the top stories shared by people in your Twitter network over the last 24 hours. (Former Nuzzel fans will be happy to learn they can pin the new “top articles” section directly to their nav bar from the in-app settings menu.)
The expansion of Twitter Blue comes amid a broader shift for the company, which has been shaking up many of its core features for the first time in its 15-year history. Elsewhere, the company has embraced creator-centric features like Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces, and is building out a newsletter platform. Twitter Blue is different, though, because the company is hoping to draw in its most hardcore users rather than attract new voices to its platform.
But it’s unclear just how many of those users will be willing to pay for those extra features. The company has been testing Twitter Blue in Australia and Canada since early June, but hasn’t shared on early adoption or other metrics for the service, Twitter said Tuesday it will continue to add new features and will be paying close attention to user feedback.
Facebook is bringing monetization features into yet another part of its service: groups. The social network is testing new tools that allow group admins to make money, with new shopping, fundraising and subscription features.
The company announced the updates at its annual Communities Summit event, where it said the new features will help people who run groups “sustain” the communities they have built. With the changes, Facebook is group admins three ways to monetize their communities. The first two, community shops and fundraisers, mirror features elsewhere on the platform. Community shops is an extension of Facebook’s existing features, and allows group admins to sell themed merch or other goods. Likewise, fundraisers will enable admins to crowdfund specific projects or otherwise “offset the costs of running the group.”
But the third feature is entirely new: paid subgroups. Subgroups are essentially smaller groups-within-a-group where members pay a monthly fee to participate. While Facebook is also allowing group admins to set up free subgroups, the paid version of the feature is the company’s latest effort to create subscription-based products. Elsewhere, Facebook has been hyping subscriptions as a way for creators to make money, either via newsletters or fan subscriptions for streamers. In the context of groups, subscriptions are meant to enable access to exclusive or specialized content like “coaching or networking or deeper conversations.”
Facebook
Maria Smith, Facebook’s VP of Communities says that Facebook doesn’t expect all groups will want or need paid features, but that many groups already sell their own merch or organize fundraisers. So bringing the tools directly to them could be useful. On the other hand, groups have also been home to Facebook’s most toxic and divisive content, and the company has at times struggled to keep problematic groups in check.
Given Facebook’s track record here, it feels almost inevitable that some groups will find a way to misuse these tools (Facebook is planning a slow rollout, so most groups won’t have access to these features right away.) Smith notes that subgroups will have the same moderation tools as the wider group and that it could in some cases make it easier for admin to handle. “It’s going to classify the discussions in the different subgroups and then they can manage them more efficiently,” she said. She added that groups and subgroups will also be required to follow the company’s commerce guidelines and fundraising rules.
As much as groups have been maligned, the feature is also the one that Facebook frequently points to as proof that its platform can bring people together and be a force for good. Facebook has also indicated that groups will play an important role in its plan to build a metaverse. “We're focused on building bridges from our apps on 2D screens into more immersive virtual experiences,” Mark Zuckerberg said at the start of Thursday’s event. “Facebook, and your groups, are going to be central to this.”
Zuckerberg is still explaining what a Metaverse means for the social network and the company now known as Meta. But it’s not hard to imagine that today’s Facebook groups could one day inhabit virtual spaces within the metaverse, though that vision is still “a ways off,” says Smith.
In addition to the new monetization features, Facebook announced several other updates for groups, including:
New customization features that allow admins to change background colors, font styles and other aspects of the way groups look
Community chats to make it easier for admins and group moderators to reach each other
A new “featured” section so group admins can pin content that stays at the top of the group
Facebook also plans to start testing a new set of features that will streamline the groups and Pages experience for admins who manage both a group and a corresponding page. It’s still not totally clear exactly how this will work, but Facebook says the goal is to bring some group-specific features, like moderation tools, into Pages while also giving admins the ability to “use an official voice when interacting with their community.”
Facebook is rolling out another bonus program as it tries to bring more creators into its platform. This time, the company is focusing on subscriptions, which it says will help creators avoid Apple’s 30 percent commission on in-app purchases.
The social network is launching a web form for subscriptions, so individual creators can direct fans to subscribe outside of the app using Facebook Pay rather than Apple’s in-app purchases. “When people subscribe using this link, creators will keep all the money they earn (minus taxes),” Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post.
Additionally, the company is introducing a bonus program that will pay creators between $5 and $20 for each new subscriber who signs up between now and the end of the year. Creators can earn up to $10,000 in bonuses, Facebook wrote in a blog post. The new bonus program is “invite-only in all 27 markets where the subscriptions feature is available to creators,” Facebook said, noting it wants to expand the program to more people “in the coming months.”
Facebook
Zuckerberg, who has had a long-running feud with Apple, has made the so-called “App Store tax” one of his top talking points about the iPhone maker. The company already created a workaround for businesses to circumvent in-app purchases for paid events, and has told creators Facebook won’t take a cut of their earnings until 2023. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg said creators would also be able to download their subscriber lists in order to have “more ownership of their audience.”
Winning over creators has become an increasingly important priority for Facebook, which already announced plans to funnel $1 billion into creator programs by the end of next year. The company sees creators as key to fending off rivals like TikTok and YouTube, and winning back the “young adult” demographic. Newly disclosed documents show that Facebook and Instagram are facing increasing declines in the number of younger users on its platform. The trend has worried executives and stumped researchers, who have so far been unable to turn the numbers around.
