Facebook is rolling out Neighborhoods in about 130 cities this fall. The feature asks users for a one-time location check and then matches them with their local community — not unlike other geo-fenced apps like NextDoor, that group users into more small groups based on where they live.
And, like those other apps, Neighborhoods will face the issue of misinformation.
Fact-checking content is a constant battle for all social media companies. But, when it comes to global or national issues that affect a lot of people — say, Covid-19, or presidential and congressional elections — the same guidelines can be used for a lot of content.
But happens when there’s potential misinformation at a much more granular level — for example, about decisions affecting one of the nation’s nearly 20,000 towns and cities?
According to Neighborhood Product Manager Reid Patton, Facebook is going to lean into local moderation.
"We've built a really in depth moderation system, where moderators are invested in the well being of neighborhoods to keep the space safe, civil in kind by moderating post and comments using our neighborhood guidelines," Patton said.
Facebook hopes that multiple moderators, and its pre-existing tools for content screening, will help keep the misinformation at bay. Time will tell if they’re successful.
