Facebook groups of diverse sizes have always had the freedom to alter their privacy settings at any given time. But recently, as spotted by Matt Navarra, Facebook has rolled out an update to its group settings in such a way that groups will no longer have the liberty to switch from “private” to “public.”
This action is being taken to protect the privacy of the members of the group, especially one that was intended to remain private from going public and exposing the identities of its members in doing so.
This change will bring uniformity across all the groups on Facebook, and it will also help in maintaining a necessary decorum in those groups.
Until now, Facebook used to allow groups with less than 5000 members to alter their privacy settings once in 28 days. Any person who had joined a particular group thinking that it would remain private, could one day find all his or her posts in that group going public, due to the choice that Facebook used to give to the admins.
Now, with this change in settings, admins and moderators of groups will not have any choice. Once a group is set to be private, it will remain as it is.
If the admin chooses to change the settings from “public” to “private,” they will have 72 hours to reverse it. Otherwise, the settings will become permanent.
It is a fair move, and it definitely aims to protect the privacy of all the members of groups who may find this very disconcerting.
Sometimes admins choose to switch between private and public to increase their chances of seeking attention and gaining more followers too. This is like a baiting move, especially on Instagram where many accounts and meme pages go private, just for the sake of their growth.
Whenever a page goes private, its members share a post and that does not become visible to their friends who are not on that particular page. But having seen that post, they become intrigued too, and hence, they go to the page and like and follow it. This helps the page gain new followers and keep growing through this growth hack.
This same practice could become a norm on Facebook also, so, as a precautionary measure, Facebook has decided to nip it in the bud! Now, no one can lure members through switching their privacy settings, and that is that!
Pouring freezing water on all these group admins who wanted to keep playing around with the switch settings, it seems that Facebook has taken a bold, straight-forward step. Which makes sense and might bring a sigh of relief for the members who look up to these privacy setting changes with a lot of concern.
These new changes are reported to be implemented in a few weeks.
Read next: Spending Too Much Time On Social Media Is Worsening The Mental Health Of Users During The COVID-19 Pandemic
This action is being taken to protect the privacy of the members of the group, especially one that was intended to remain private from going public and exposing the identities of its members in doing so.
This change will bring uniformity across all the groups on Facebook, and it will also help in maintaining a necessary decorum in those groups.
Until now, Facebook used to allow groups with less than 5000 members to alter their privacy settings once in 28 days. Any person who had joined a particular group thinking that it would remain private, could one day find all his or her posts in that group going public, due to the choice that Facebook used to give to the admins.
Now, with this change in settings, admins and moderators of groups will not have any choice. Once a group is set to be private, it will remain as it is.
If the admin chooses to change the settings from “public” to “private,” they will have 72 hours to reverse it. Otherwise, the settings will become permanent.
It is a fair move, and it definitely aims to protect the privacy of all the members of groups who may find this very disconcerting.
- Also read: Social Comparison: Is it healthy?
Sometimes admins choose to switch between private and public to increase their chances of seeking attention and gaining more followers too. This is like a baiting move, especially on Instagram where many accounts and meme pages go private, just for the sake of their growth.
Whenever a page goes private, its members share a post and that does not become visible to their friends who are not on that particular page. But having seen that post, they become intrigued too, and hence, they go to the page and like and follow it. This helps the page gain new followers and keep growing through this growth hack.
This same practice could become a norm on Facebook also, so, as a precautionary measure, Facebook has decided to nip it in the bud! Now, no one can lure members through switching their privacy settings, and that is that!
Pouring freezing water on all these group admins who wanted to keep playing around with the switch settings, it seems that Facebook has taken a bold, straight-forward step. Which makes sense and might bring a sigh of relief for the members who look up to these privacy setting changes with a lot of concern.
These new changes are reported to be implemented in a few weeks.
Read next: Spending Too Much Time On Social Media Is Worsening The Mental Health Of Users During The COVID-19 Pandemic
