Facebook recommends US political groups volte-face

Facebook recommended users of its platform to join political and civic groups on its platform, despite having publicly committed to stop doing so ahead of the US 2020 presidential election.

According to The Markup, Facebook continued to recommend political groups throughout January 2021, having renewed its promise not to on January 11. Data also suggests that Facebook remained disproportionately likely to recommend political groups to supporters of Donald Trump. 

The finding prompted Senator Ed Markey to write to Mark Zuckerberg asking for an explanation, calling Facebook group 'breeding groups for hate'. 

On January 11, Facebook had stated in a blog post that it was 'not recommending civic groups for people to join' on its platform.