A new Facebook feature called Page History will show users information on the location of the people managing a Page, as well as if and when a Page has changed its name. Page History is part of Facebook’s efforts to bring more transparency ahead of the US midterm elections.
According to Buzzfeed, Facebook accidentally turned on a new feature that enabled users to see information about a page that was not accessible before. For example, the feature can tell you when a page was created, how many people manage it, where these people are based, and if and when the page name was changed. The new feature, called Page History, is part of Facebook’s efforts to bring more transparency, and is currently being tested in Canada ahead of a rollout in the US, for the upcoming 2018 midterm elections.
But the feature was turned on accidentally, and has now been taken down again, after Buzzfeed brought it to Facebook’s attention.
Alex Himel, Facebook’s VP of Local, took to Twitter for some kind of explanation: “We mistakenly launched an early test to people in Canada and Ireland. We are still working on the product so have since rolled it back.”
We announced earlier this year that we would make Pages more transparent, like show whether a Page has changed its name. https://t.co/g4luVciAeG. We mistakenly launched an early test to people in Canada and Ireland. 1/2
— Alex Himel (@ahimel) May 11, 2018
Himel also said that the feature will indeed be rolled out “in the coming weeks.”
Page History seems like an interesting tool to help users get additional context about Pages which will, in turn, help them effectively assess their content. Buzzfeed managed to check the “Page History” of several pages before the feature was taken down, and found that many pro-Trump pages were managed from the Middle East, or that some Native American Support pages were solely managed from Vietnam… I’m sure things will get really interesting when the feature becomes widely available.
[box]Read next: Facebook Builds A New Team To Work On Blockchain Technology[/box]