Who’s Your Community Moderator? Maybe Me.

Would you count on your conservative uncle to decide whether a post about your favourite restaurant was appropriate? What about that disgruntled customer who took out their bad day on your employees? Should they get to decide whether your social media posts are telling the truth? Are you going to amp up the controversy just so your posts get seen?

These are all questions we’re asking these days as Meta makes a significant change to its moderation and fact-checking processes. 

Here’s what you need to know:

• Moderation changes will hit the US first. 

• Community Notes will appear on posts containing disputed information. 

• Community Notes will be written by, and decided upon, by users - not Meta - and they will have to agree on the note. 

• People can start signing up to become contributors immediately. 

This is part of the problem with allowing a massive company to have too much of a say in your business communications! You lose control of the medium, but you’re also starting to lose control of what your message can and cannot be.

Losing Control

For example, Instagram recently announced your posts will get less reach if they include your logo or other watermark - which hurts artists trying to protect their art from teaching AI, as well as theft. Reels longer than 90 seconds will be limited. Who needs nuance anyway? And they’ll also remove posted content you didn’t make (OK this is a good one - mostly!).

If you ask for engagement - AKA “engagement bait” - using words like “please share or like this video” or “follow for more,” your posts will be limited. 

In addition, posting “non-recommendable content” or content discussing suicide, eating disorders, tobacco, or “sexually suggestive,” content will be removed or visibility reduced - no matter whether you’re pro, against, or simply trying to educate.

(This is why a certain bite-sized fruit you sometimes steal as you’re grocery shopping, has replaced the word rape on all those video platforms!)

Fighting the Trolls

On the flip side of this coin, Meta insists freedom of speech is the goal of the new moderation rules. So, on one hand, Meta can limit reach on posts for content they don’t like, but they’ll rely on the community to decide what is and isn’t misinformation. It’s a hard-knocked life for a social media manager these days!

Interestingly, there’s a question about whether this move will impact the level of ad revenue Meta collects. Social Media Today is asking this question and pointing out the huge hit Twitter/X took upon moving to user-sourced Community Notes. We also know what a cesspool Twitter has become since this policy change, but the author makes a great point about how much bigger Facebook and Instagram are than the Musk Factory. 

Future Focused

So what can we expect? Well, you’ll probably see these changes roll out slowly to your existing business accounts, but you will absolutely see more aggressive and, likely more political content start rolling in on your personal accounts first.

As to whether cost-cutting and political pandering continue into the future, we’ll have to wait and see. There’s no crystal ball when it comes to the wild, wild west of social media. But Rogue Penguin is always here to help you roll with the punches. Get in touch if you need help or an explainer of what the rapidly changing social landscape will look like. We’re always watching the trends to support our clients.