Meta is temporarily changing its default setting on Facebook posts for some users as a result of the war in Israel and Gaza.
The company, in a blog post, said it was altering who can comment on newly created public Facebook posts to friends or established followers. That’s a notable shift from its default policy that anyone can post on publicly viewable accounts.
Meta did not clearly outline where the changes would take place in the post, only saying the policy change would apply to “people in the region,” implying users in the Middle East. (Meta did not immediately respond to a query by Coins2Day seeking clarification.) Nor did the company outline how long the change in policy would last.
Regardless of the range at which the changes are being rolled out, other users will be able to select it as well, the company said.
“Users globally can choose to use this setting and opt in or out at any time, and we are notifying people in the region with specific instructions on how to change this setting,” it wrote.
Beyond those changes, Facebook is also making it easier for users to bulk-delete comments and has “disabled the feature that normally displays the first one or two comments under posts in Feed.”
The changes come as Meta fights a flood of hate speech and misinformation surrounding the conflict. To protect users, the site has rolled out a Lock Your Profile tool, which prevents people who aren’t friends from downloading, enlarging, or sharing someone’s profile picture. That feature also hides posts and photos on profiles, no matter who posted them.
Meta also announced it had fixed a bug that prevented shared Reels and Feed posts on Instagram. Some users had complained that pro-Palestinian posts were being buried on the site. Meta maintains the issue “affected accounts equally around the globe—not only people trying to post about what’s happening in Israel and Gaza—and it had nothing to do with the subject matter of the content.”