• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
TechEngage

TechEngage

Technology news and opinions

  • Tech News
  • Reviews
  • How-to
  • Roundups
  • Science
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Space
  • Apps
  • More
    • Opinion
    • Noteworthy
    • Culture
    • Blockchain
      • Cryptocurrency
    • Events
    • Deals
    • Startups
      • Startup Submissions
  • Videos
  • Login
TechEngage » News » Social Networks

Facebook kills its “Common Grounds” project meant to encourage civil political discussion

Avatar Of Areen Zahra Areen Zahra Updated: January 18, 2019

illustration contains facebook logo with crowd as vectors
Design by Muntaha / TechEngage

Facebook has decided to halt its “Common Grounds” project, designed to promote civil political discussion on the platform. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook conducted research and discussion on an idea of encouraging positive political discussions. However, after strong opposition from the global head of policy, the idea is dead (and, frankly, so is civil discourse, it seems). It appears Facebook was afraid of being accused of bias against American Conservatives. 

Facebook’s Common Ground Project was meant to host a hostility-free environment for users to participate in political discussions. It was meant to exist alongside efforts to make Facebook a less toxic place, including the optimization of News Feed to highlight posts with more comments, shares, and likes, as well as the algorithms that would eventually bury “hateful” comments. This, according to Facebook, would give a healthy boost to the political discussions between people with different ideologies.

However, the global policy head of Facebook, Joel Kaplan (who is also a former White House aide) had some serious objections. He raised the concern that de-emphasizing certain comments could lead to the silencing of some users on Facebook. Kaplan, along with other executives, raised the point that downplaying certain negative Conservative comments can create a one-sided view of political conversations. Instead of creating a constructive, and productive discussion board, the platform would probably end up polarizing its users even more. This concern raised by Kaplan led the company to halt their development, even after conducting extensive research on the feature.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that a spokeswoman for Facebook highlighted the fact that the company needs to acknowledge diverse views since they have created a platform that needs to serve everyone equally. Downplaying certain comments would negate the idea of giving equal importance to all voices, no matter how negative they are. 

However, in an effort to avoid bias, Facebook itself looks a little biased. Do we allow negative or hate speech just because it might represent the views held by a certain political party? 

Also, Mr. Kaplan has been under some serious criticism in the past few weeks for supporting his friend Brett Kavanaugh as a Conservative nominee to the US Supreme Court, despite allegations of sexual misconduct. Facebook employees considered this an endorsement from Facebook in favor of Kavanaugh and were less than happy.

People have also assumed that the decision to kill off Common Grounds was made to placate political figures who have accused Facebook of being biased against conservative voices in the past.

Of course, recent research shows that sharing political opinions on platforms like Facebook does little if anything to change people’s minds. Discussions only end up provoking people and leading to more negative interaction online.

At this point, it’s hard to tell what might be the right way forward in encouraging people to be more civil when discussing politics. 

This post was orginally published on: December 24, 2018 and was updated on: January 18, 2019.

Related Tags: Facebook

Related Stories

  • Facebook Watch Will Be The New Home For Mtv’s Real World

    Facebook Watch will be the new home for MTV’s Real World

  • Facebook Hq Evacuated Due To A Bomb Threat (Updated)

    Facebook HQ evacuated due to a bomb threat (updated)

  • A Summary Of Facebook’S Disastrous 2018

    A summary of Facebook’s disastrous 2018

Avatar Of Areen Zahra

Areen Zahra

Former Technology Writer

IT professional and a passionate writer who enjoys putting my love of technology into words for a general audience.

Reader Interactions

Join The Discussion: Cancel reply

Please read our comment policy before submitting your comment. Your email address will not be used or publish anywhere. You will only receive comment notifications if you opt to subscribe below.

Primary Sidebar

Become a contributor

We are accepting contributor applications. All applications will be decided in 3 days after applying. To learn more click here.
TechEngage-Apple-News
TechEngage-Google-News

Recent Stories

  • How to Watch Nvidia, Microsoft, and AMD’s Computex 2022 keynotes
  • YouTube Music App Now Lets You Play the Music on Wear OS
  • Netflix’s Long-term Subscribers are Canceling the Netflix Subscription
  • Google Announces New Features of Google Maps at Google I/O
  • Apple Releases iOS 15.5 Ahead of Annual Developer Conference
Featured Image for Best Sports Apps

Best apps for Sports news and updates

A woman working from home

10 work from home jobs for mothers in 2022

two kids using their phones

How to use spy apps monitor a child’s social media activity

A photo of a person playing PUBG on mobile phone

Things you should know about android games mods

Footer

Discover

  • About us
  • Newsroom
  • Staff
  • Advertise
  • Send us a tip
  • Startup Submission Questionnaire
  • Brand Kit
  • Contact us

Legal pages

  • Reviews Guarantee
  • Community Guidelines
  • Corrections Policy and Practice
  • Cookies Policy
  • Our Ethics
  • Disclaimer
  • GDPR Compliance
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Must reads

  • Best AirPods alternatives on Amazon
  • Best PC monitors for gaming on Amazon
  • Best family board games
  • Best Graphics Cards (GPUs) for gaming
  • Best video doorbells without subscription
  • Best handheld video game consoles
  • Best all-season tires for snow
  • Best mobile Wi-Fi hotspots
  • Best treadmills on Amazon
  • Best AM radios for long-distance reception

Download our apps

TechEngage-app-google-play-store

Copyright © 2022 · All Rights Reserved · TechEngage® is a Project of TechAbout LLC.
TechEngage® is a registered trademark in United Kingdom under Trademark Number UK00003417167 and is ISSN protected under the ISSN 2690-3776 and OCLC Number 1139335774.

Go to mobile version