Facebook has stated on more than one occasion that one of its purposes is to offer a digital communication solution for the widest possible range of contexts.
As part of that interest, they have now announced the opening of a new section within the app of its homonymous social network, dedicated to communication between neighbors.
Facebook now wants to connect the neighbors of each place
“Neighborhoods” or simply “Neighbors” is the name of the new initiative that Facebook presented, as a new part of its application, focused on the purpose of contacting neighbors and providing news at the community level.
As a pilot test, the first stage of this new section was implemented by Facebook in Canada, particularly in the town of Calgary, in October last year.
The advantage of this new dynamic is the separation between the personal contacts of the profile (the list of friends) and the neighborhood contacts, which will function only within the new section presented.
To participate in “Neighbors”, it is necessary to create a sub-profile linked to the main one of your account, something similar to what is done in Facebook Couples. The information is managed in different spaces, but the login and administration are executed from the same account.
In this section, users can join their neighborhoods or establish networks with nearby neighborhoods to discuss any topic of collective interest. They can also explore attractions, recommendations, or services offered in the nearby radius.
Applications such as Nextdoor in the North American market or Sosafe in the Southern Cone of America, are an older sample, with active communities, that demonstrate how tools of this type work.
As for the privacy management of this tool, it would be under the same terms under which Facebook works, as expected. Therefore, the activity in this space will also influence the advertising displayed by the social platform.
The experience known from these other applications indicates that one of the main challenges that Facebook would have to face if its solution grows in coverage and volume of use would be the moderation of messages. The social network stated that they will have moderators and, in addition, each user will have the opportunity to block other accounts, just as in traditional Facebook.
Currently, neighborhood communities usually manage collective communication channels. If they are not some of the aforementioned applications, sometimes a simple WhatsApp group is enough. However, this new alternative seeks to attract the attention and trust of the neighborhood communities, so that they will implement it once it is deployed beyond Canada.
