Can't duck the Zuck: Facebook's intolerable behavior towards groups and their moderators
I wanted to share my frustrations with Facebook, specifically with how it abuses the free labor of those who run groups, lies to them and creates perverse incentives. I understand why you might not care about this, but in some small way, I think it’s illustrative of everything irrational, exploitative and senseless about tech monopolies.
I run a group called “A Group Where We Are All a Wise Council of Bears” with almost 20,000 members. It’s a perfectly innocent group and has only had real drama one time in its whole existence. It brings a lot of people a lot of joy, including many lonely souls in a pandemic. Running this group is a lot of fun, but it’s also a lot of effort. I’m grateful to have the help of several moderators with excellent judgment and patient dispositions.
Recently this group has been engaged in a pretend war with “A group where we all pretend to be fish” another fine group. There is no real malice in this, only roleplaying. Despite that, I’ve made it clear to group members that they have to be polite because Facebook doesn’t always understand context and nuance.
When one is a moderator, it is possible to review previous violations by members. Generally speaking a sign comes up that says that member violations “do not put your group at risk”.
When I logged in this morning I saw a warning:
“Additional violations could mean your group will be restricted or disabled.”
And: “Member violations have put your group at risk for mandatory post-approval.”
So what were these dangerous violations? Here are the four most recent ones- I have changed the names to protect the innocent:
Jordan Gardener commented on Matthew Liu’s post: Matthew Liu’s post: “YOU'RE A FISH. I EAT FISHES.".
Sam Simmons commented on Sam Simmons post: "Oscar Mondo get the blub outta here 😡😡😡 u nasty bear".
“Tyrone LeHay: I AM A GREAT FISH WARRIOR FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN. I have ended thousands of your kind already with my poison shell, I will chomp your puny paws right off, you foul loathsome cockroach".
"Lauren Jenkins: NO FEENSE, YOU UGLY FISHY. NO GO DOWN THAT DEEP.".
In other words, a couple of people pretending to be bears and fishes. More to the point, not something that I or any of the moderators can be expected to stop. I can’t check every post, nor is that a reasonable expectation.
Exploitation, lies, and perverse incentives
Now sure, that’s annoying, but in the introduction to this article I said that Facebook:
Abuses the free labor of those who run these groups
Lies to these people
Creates perverse incentives
Why do I think that? How does this follow from what I described?
Perverse incentives
When you join a new group on Facebook, there are usually several warnings posted all over the group stating that it is very important that you do not report any content and that if you report anything, you will be banned. Instead, you’re told that you have to tag a mod. Why is that? Because these groups know, from experience, that no group can last very long if people report content. The group will soon “get the zucc”- i.e. be banned.
Basically, Facebook has created a system where no one is willing to report anything to them, lest their group get sledged.
Lies
The log tells you that member violations “don’t put your group at risk” right up until you get a certain number of member violations at which point it starts telling you that further violations “..could mean your group will be restricted or disabled.”
We never discouraged people from reporting violations, precisely because we wanted our group to be a safe place and, foolishly, we took Facebook at its word that member violations wouldn’t result in our group getting banned or restricted.
Exploitation
Right now there is an enormous amount of churn in groups. It is considered inevitable that any given group will, at some point, “get the Zucc”. Like a fast-growing jungle where every tree is eventually chopped, groups are started, people enjoy them for a while, then everything the administrators, moderators and members have worked to build is taken away because it’s impossible to meet Facebook’s group quality standards. I can’t review every post and comment, so eventually, all that I worked for will be taken away.
I find that depressing. Given the important role these groups play in Facebook, I also find it exploitative.
So fuck the Zucc, and please share this around groups you’re part of.
If you enjoyed this post you might enjoy my free anthology of essays which you can find here