In the wake of last month’s violent riot at the U.S. Capitol, Facebook is under renewed pressure to strengthen is content moderation practices and crack down on potentially violent groups. In fact, according to a recent report, Facebook itself was aware of the problem months ago. According to the report, first published in The Wall Street Journal, internal researchers at Facebook found that, of the 100 most active civic groups on Facebook, 70% “are considered non-recommendable for issues such as hate, misinfo, bullying, and harassment.”

In response to this issue, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on a call with investors that the company will permanently stop recommending political groups to users. And while this is undoubtedly the right thing to do, some critics of Facebook are unconvinced that the company will follow through.

“I am pleased to see that Facebook is heeding my calls and has pledged to permanently stop recommending political groups to its users, as a matter of policy,” Sen. Ed Markey said in a statement. “Frankly, though, Facebook has a record of broken promises, and I’ll be watching closely to see whether it keeps this commitment.”

As is often the case with Facebook, the company has ultimately reached the right decision — but only after learning from its mistakes the hard way.

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