Facebook To No Longer Allow Religion Or Politics On Its Site
Facebook will be making sweeping changes to its profile fields and will be removing users' options to showcase their religious and political affiliations beginingon December 1st.
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Just when you thought you finished adjusting to the waves of sweeping changes to Facebook, the social media giant is getting ready for another one. This week, news got out that the company will make a significant change to user profile fields. However, they have yet to make an official announcement about the move.
In efforts to remain relevant and hang on to its shrinking market share, Facebook has made many recent changes and updates to the social media platform. In July, it announced a trial of a feature allowing users to have multiple profiles. And in the same month, the company finally updated feeds to include a Feeds tab.
That tab will allow users to see new posts in chronological order. That shift was welcome news for the platform’s users, even though it coincided with another less lauded update. That subsequent update altered what standard feeds show users.
Instead of seeing pictures and updates from friends and families upon opening Facebook, users now get more of a TikTok experience. The primary vertical in the platform showcases recommended reels, stories, and posts based on an AI algorithm. The company also intends to increase the volume of recommended items in proportion to the rest of your feed.
If you love TikTok videos and YouTube shorts, this new-ish update might be right up your alley. However, if you are on Facebook to keep up with friends and families, this change may not thrill you. Go ahead and pop over to your Feeds tab to avoid the onslaught.
Then, throughout the fall, the social media giant made sweeping changes to Reels functions on both Facebook and Instagram. Those updates now allow creators to schedule their Reels posts. Additionally, they added several other new features, such as Reels Insights and Add Yours stickers.
And if you have Facebook Messenger, you likely recently received a slew of messages from your various groups. That is due to a brand new feature called Community Chats. Anyone familiar with Discord or Slack will see some similarities.
The new Community Chats will allow you to connect more easily with members of your various groups. Additionally, it will streamline communication and possibly provide deeper avenues for connection. Facebook hopes that by embedding this feature into Messenger, they will see a re-engagement from users.
Most of these recent updates were received with a mixture of reactions. But the latest update may not be welcome news for some users. CNET noted that “Facebook will get rid of contact and basic information from users’ profiles” starting December 1.
But what do those fields include? Currently, this is where users showcase their interests, such as political affiliation, religious views, or sexuality. It is also where users can share info such as their addresses.
A spokesman for Meta, Emil Vasquez, said, “We’re sending notifications to people who have these fields filled out, letting them know these fields will be removed.” The company claims they are removing these fields to make the platform easier to use. But, as none of those fields are required, it is unclear how their purge will streamline anything.
