Behind the Velvet Ropes of Facebook’s Private Groups
The company hasn’t explicitly linked its focus on groups to last year’s election, but the success of private political groups like Pantsuit Nation, a community of Hillary Clinton supporters
that grew from a handful of users to 3.9 million members in a matter of months, clearly showed that some users preferred to hang out in groups of like-minded people.
“We don’t call it a safe space — it’s a platform for like-minded progressives to share stories, resources and calls to action.”
Pantsuit Nation is a secret group, meaning that users need an invitation from a current member to join.
I’ve gotten access to scores of private groups — more than 100 in all — ranging in size from a handful of members to millions.
Libby Chamberlain, the founder of Pantsuit Nation, started the group before last year’s election
and now oversees a team of 30 moderators who wade through thousands of submitted posts every week, removing comments that are hostile or disparaging.
A group called Wine Memes for Wine Moms (6,846 members) offered funny graphics and jokes about the lives of maternal oenophiles.
Matt Prestbury, a Baltimore-based preschool teacher
and father of four, started a group called Black Fathers in 2009, out of frustration with negative portrayals of African-American parents in the media.
I now know that there are hundreds of people who love creating memes about “The Sopranos,”
and thousands who believe, with total conviction, that the Earth is flat.
Like the Infidelity Support Group (12,948 members), in which partners of unfaithful spouses traded stories and messages of sympathy.