Facebook's parent company Meta has said that the social networking website will provide users who have posts removed with more information before locking them in "Facebook Jail".
"Facebook Jail" is simply when the social media platform bans a user for either intentionally or unintentionally violating its community guidelines. The ban can be either temporary and last for a few hours or up to 21 days or permanent, in which case Facebook deletes the user's account. Once the user is in jail, they cannot publish, comment, like or share any content. The user is also unable to add friends or accept the already present requests. This continues until the sentence has been completed, at which point the user is granted full access to their account again.
A single strike usually results in a warning with no account restrictions. Under the new policy, if a user has two to six strikes on their account, they will be barred from using certain features, such as posting in a Facebook group, for an "indefinite period of time." If a user has eight strikes on their account, they will be barred from posting for three days, seven days if they have nine strikes and 30 days if they have 10 or more strikes, as per Meta.
The company said in a press release, "Under the new system, we will focus on helping people understand why we have removed their content, which is shown to be more effective at preventing re-offending, rather than so quickly restricting their ability to post. We will still apply account restrictions to persistent violators, typically beginning at the seventh violation, after we've given sufficient warnings and explanations to help the person understand why we removed their content."
The company added that the old rules will apply to violations such as terrorism, child exploitation, human trafficking, suicide promotion, sexual exploitation and the offenders will face immediate restrictions.
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Monika Bickert, Vice President of Content Policy, said, "Our analysis has found that nearly 80 per cent of users with a low number of strikes do not go on to violate our policies again in the next 60 days. This means that most people respond well to a warning and explanation since they don't want to violate our policies."
The Oversight Board stated that it welcomed the changes but believes Meta could do more to improve policies. "Today's announcement focuses on less serious violations. Yet the Board has consistently found that Meta also makes mistakes when it comes to identifying and enforcing more serious violations, which can severely impact journalists and activists. That's why the Oversight Board has asked for greater transparency on "severe strikes" and will continue to do so."
