X adopts FB Group-like member vetting feature to enhance its Communities

This new feature will allow admins and moderators to screen out unwanted invaders such as spammers and irksome bots

San Francisco: Elon Musk-run X has adopted a new member vetting feature, which is currently used across many Facebook Groups to vet members before joining.

The company has announced that admins of private Communities on X will now need members to answer a question as well as agree to the group’s guidelines when requesting to join. “Gatekeeping allowed – admins of private communities can now require people to answer a question first before being able to join,” X said on Friday.

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This new feature will allow admins and moderators to screen out unwanted invaders such as spammers and irksome bots. In addition, the feature could potentially allow admins to evaluate Communities on X and grant exclusive status to select members based on their worthiness. Facebook Groups has a similar feature, but it’s far more robust.

Administrators on Facebook can make individuals answer several questions before they can join, as well as agree to their group’s own set of rules. Though anybody can start a Facebook Group, creating and managing Communities on X is a function available only to X Premium users since only “verified” people can create a Community.

Joining Communities, on the other hand, is available to all X users. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has said that X users can now block unverified accounts from replying to their posts. In a post, X said: “you can now limit replies to verified users.” Musk added that this “should help a lot with spam bots”.