Facebook Hopes to Crush Nextdoor with ‘Neighborhoods’ Feature

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is applauded as he delivers the opening keynote introducing n
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Lucas Nolan

Facebook is reportedly taking on the hyperlocal social media platform Nextdoor with its new “Neighborhoods” feature. This latest move adds to Facebook’s long history of copying features from other platforms to apply its incredible market power to smaller competitors.

The Verge reports that Facebook is developing its own version of the hyperlocal social media app Nextdoor. Facebook’s new feature will be called Neighborhoods and is currently available across Canada and is set to come to four U.S. cities soon including Charlotte, North Carolina; San Diego, California; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Newark, New Jersey.

Neighborhoods is reportedly about combining geographically defined group of Facebook users into a single space to discuss local events and news. Facebook says that users should be able to get to know their neighbors better, ask for recommendations on the best shops in the area, and even organize local events.

In a blog post, Facebook stated:

You can find vibrant local Facebook groups about your area, or you can create your own Neighborhoods-bounded groups based on your interests. Admins of local Facebook Groups can add their Group into Neighborhoods to make it easy for people living nearby to find it, and people using Neighborhoods can create or join Neighborhoods-bounded groups that are accessible within the Neighborhoods experience.

You can create Neighborhoods groups for local bird watchers, or discuss last night’s game with fellow basketball lovers in your area.

Its extremely possible that just like on Nextdoor, Neighborhoods will be used by users to argue about local going-ons and complain about each other. These actions have been so common that it has even generated a wildly popular Twitter page called Best of Nextdoor.

Only users aged 18 and older will be allowed to join Facebook’s new Neighborhood groups, where they will be able to create a new account separate from their main Facebook account. Users can “choose to add interests, favorite places and a bio” to the profile before introducing themselves to the group.

Reid Patton, a product manager for Facebook Neighborhoods, told CNET that each group will have moderators to ensure that people remain polite on the platform, but it is unclear what powers these moderators will have to enforce Facebook policies.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com

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