Group Privacy & Abuse
There are two privacy options for Facebook groups: public and private.
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If you’re a member of a group, you can learn more about how to check the privacy level of your group and whether your group is visible in search and other places on Facebook.
If you’re an admin of a group, you can learn more about how to change the privacy level of your group and manage whether people who aren’t in your group can find your group in search and other places on Facebook.
| Public | Private | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can see what members post, comment and share in the group? | Anyone | Current Members |
| Who can see the list of members in the group? | People on Facebook | Current Members |
| Who can see who the admins and moderators are? | People on Facebook | People on Facebook |
Keep in mind:
- Invited members are members of a group who can see the group in preview mode.
- When a Page joins a group there could be several admins of that Page. All of them can see and interact with posts and members of the group.
- If an admin of the group has added a third-party app, the app has access to posts and comments in the group. Third-party apps can't access who wrote posts and comments unless the app has been given permission by the author.
- Select rights owners may be able to search sale group posts to prevent the misuse of intellectual property on Facebook.
- For college communities, only members of the community can see other members and posts. Only members of the college community can join community groups. For open groups within college communities, anyone in the community can see who’s in the group and what they post.
- We may review group content (including private groups) to maintain the integrity of our products, promote safety and security on and off of our products, and to improve our products and services, and as otherwise described in the data policy.
Only group admins can change the privacy of a Facebook group.
There are 2 privacy settings for Facebook groups:
- Public: anyone can see who’s in the group and what they post.
- Private: only members can see who’s in the group and what they post.
Changing Public Group Privacy
Public groups can change to private. If an admin schedules the privacy setting to change, they have 3 days to cancel if they’d like to.
Keep in mind:
- All admins will get a notification when the privacy change is scheduled.
- Everyone in the group will get a notification when the privacy change happens.
- If the change is canceled, the group will stay public and admins will be notified that the change was canceled.
To change the privacy of a public Facebook group you admin:
- From your News Feed, click Groups in the left menu and select your public group.
- Click Settings in the left menu.
- Click
next to Privacy.
- Select Private and then click Save.
Changing Private Group Privacy
Private groups can't change to public to protect the privacy of group members. But group admins can choose to make their groups visible or hidden.
To leave a group:
- From your News Feed, click Groups in the left menu and select the group you want to leave. If you don't see Groups, click See More.
- Click
in the top right and then select Leave group.
- Click Leave Group to confirm.
When you leave a group:
- Members won't be notified if you leave.
- You're removed from the member list and the group will be removed from your list of groups.
- You'll no longer get group notifications or see group posts in News Feed.
- People will no longer know when you've seen a group post, even if you saw it before you left the group.
When someone invites you to a group and that invitation is approved by a member, admin or moderator, you'll receive a notification that you've been invited to a group. You'll be able to preview the group and decide if you want to join. During this time, you may also see posts from the group in your News Feed.
While you're in preview mode:
- You won't be able to post or comment on other people's posts in the group.
- You won't be able to invite others to the group.
- Members of the group can see that you're previewing the group in the members list, but those who aren't members of the group won't see you in the members list.
Keep in mind that for most groups, you can invite anyone who's a friend of someone in the group. You can leave a group at any time.
Learn more about how to invite new members to a group.
If you think a group isn't following our Community Standards, you can report it.
To report a group:
- From your News Feed click Groups in the left menu or search for the name of the group you want to report.
- Click
- Select what's wrong with the group, click Next then click Done.
Learn more about reporting things on Facebook and what happens after you report a group.
To report something you see in a group:
- Click Groups in the left menu and select your group.
- Go to the post you want to report.
- Click
in the top right of the post.
- Select Report post to group admins to report the post to an admin or select Find support or report post to send the report to Facebook.
To report a post to a group admin, you must report the post from the group. Learn how to report a group to Facebook.
Note: If you choose to report the post to an admin, the admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the post or block the person who shared the post. Reporting a post to an admin won't send a report to Facebook.
As a group admin, you'll see a notification in your group when someone reports a post to you. This feature lets group members highlight posts for you to review for any reason (example: inappropriate or offensive posts).
To view all member-reported content:
- From your News Feed, click Groups in the left menu and select your group.
- Select Member-Reported Content in the left menu.
You can then choose to:
- Keep or delete the post.
- Remove or block the member who created the post.
To report the post to Facebook, find the post in your group's discussion, click 
and then select Find support or report post. Keep in mind that reports are anonymous.
and then select Find support or report post. Keep in mind that reports are anonymous.