Congratulations Facebook!

Word is out - Facebook is now looking to minimize political content on their platform. 

They do this so their users (us) can use their platform without being steered into a negative hot state by divisive political content (thanks).

Mark Zuckerberg:

"One of the top pieces of feedback that we're hearing from our community right now is that people don't want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services," 

"This is a continuation of work we've been doing for a while to turn down the temperature and discourage divisive conversations"(https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/27/facebook-will-stop-recommending-political-groups-permanently.html)

We salute Facebook for taking this turn. We believe framing their community to avoid divisiveness can help grow the common ground worldwide - grow it from within. 

It is a turn we took on Jigidi.com in 2018 when we created new guidelines for content and behaviour on Jigidi. And it is what we hope to see much more of on other social platforms in the years to come.

Who does this concern?

Anyone holding a social platform.

40.000 people from all over the world come to Jigidi every day. There is no question this adds to our responsibility - which goes well beyond growing the individual via our website's functions. 

But there is also no question that other social platforms, regardless of their community's size, hold social responsibility beyond increasing their user base.

Behind every count is a person that takes away learnings from their visit to our website. A person who leaves our website in a particular affective state with ever-so-slightly revised expectations of how the world will meet them.

A question every social platform must ask itself is whether a user is slightly better or worse off when they leave their platform for the day.

We must always fight for the first. And educate ourselves on human online social behaviour and online connectivity - and reflect on how we, as social websites, can help undergird cooperation and empathy.

Now, it is not comfortable framing a social platform. When you stand for certain values, it comes at the expense of other values. 

For our users on Jigidi and us as website owners, the cost is that not all content is allowed on Jigidi. 

Life on Jigidi is not life as it is - by design. Thus, we are a framed community. 

Why did we make the change?

When your users speak of your platform, of what do they speak appreciatively? What barriers to achieving this do they speak of?

And what do you want with your community? (Yes, purpose)

We made the change on Jigidi as we found ourselves at a strategic breaking point. The usage of our platform did not match the goal we had for Jigidi.

Over the course of a few years the community had become increasingly divided into stereotypical groups - each fighting for 'land'. And the divisiveness took away from our aim to enable human connectivity across all kinds of borders - with creative and mental stimulation as the engine.

No one can grow when in a fight or flight mode with all that this entails.

So, we focused on what we wished for our users to get from their Jigidi experience and zoomed in on the barriers for this to happen for them.

More than anything it became apparent that our aim required us to take the matter of major divisive topics seriously.

This meant casting aside the principle that all (legal) content was welcome on Jigidi, thus ruling out, for instance, politics, religion, and sexual objectification. 

We also made changes to one-to-one moderation which became more sensitized to the workings of human online behaviour. Furthermore, we added a one-to-many layer by creating a 'local paper' to share news and insights with our users. Aiming to develop a greater understanding of the social (and technical) workings of Jigidi - to create a greater sense of a collective 'us' on Jigidi.

(We have written in more depth about the changes here and here)

It is as heartwarming as it is a stone-cold fact: We are more inclined to listen and share our personal stories, learnings and reflections with our guard down. And thereby in small steps, build empathy and understanding that is necessary for problem-solving in between groups outside of Jigidi.

Today, on Jigidi, we see people who once fought for opposite everything's come together on other, shared interests. And they do so with their shoulders down - able to listen to each other and build on each other's outputs. Because there is no land to defend.

They meet on common Jigidi-land.

Formulate a responsible user-oriented goal for community

Ok, so…how?

We must all formulate a goal for what we want for our users on our platforms (yes, purpose). And then educate ourselves on human (online) sociability - and what our platforms hold of barriers and possibilities to help undergird constructive social interaction.

And then take a critical look at the actual social usage of your platform - is your platform suitable for the current use?

Like for instance (sticking our neck out here) is it beneficial for politics, in general, to communicate politics on a platform with a character limit of 280?

…

Transparency is key

Now from there on - transparency is key to the operation.

When we are transparent about our aims, what they mean in so far as dos and don'ts on our platforms, and what the reasoning is behind these exact dos and don'ts - this makes room for framing our communities. 

And, in turn, framing makes room for creating social platforms that do not facilitate the perfect storm of human online social behaviour.

And then we have arrived at better days online where we continue to look for ways that online connectivity can help humanity take necessary leaps forward. 

Help us cooperate and find common ground. 

So, congratulations Facebook, on taking a new systemic direction for the Facebook community. 

And congratulations to the rest of us. 

With this move, our Facebook-future is looking brighter. But also add to this how other platforms will follow in their steps; our general online social future may just be taking off in a direction that benefits us all.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.