“On the Facebook group, there is respect, no mockery, just fans who support a person
,” emphasizes Séverine.
This Wednesday, January 24, this 33-year-old Belgian, fan of the television show Star Academy, is hosting the support group for candidate Héléna.
The latter is in the semi-final the following Saturday and, like Séverine, more than 30,000 fans of the young woman are frantically publishing messages or creating surveys on the “Team Héléna Star Ac 2023” group to assess her chances of reaching the final. .
“I remember that after the show on January 3, we went from 3,500 members to more than 10,000 in 48 hours
,” laughs Séverine.
“It must be said that members invite their family and friends, it’s easy to use and everyone can interact
. ”
And the “Team Héléna Star Ac 2023” page is far from being an isolated case.
The approximately three billion active monthly users of the social network, which is celebrating 20 years of existence this week, are many of them part of a “group”, whether public or private.
Launched in 2017, they consist of a discussion space, attached to a Facebook page dedicated to a specific theme.
Facebook groups, a meeting place
Thus, there are Facebook groups for advice for young parents, for flea markets in Val-de-Marne and even for Sonny Angel fashionable cherub figurines… In short, there are as many groups as there are centers of interest .
“In our group, everyone can post their questions or offer some of their figurines for sale, unlike the Instagram page where I am the only one who can post,”
says Audrey, who manages the French page Sonny Angel Wanted, followed by more than 2000 people.
“Groups are practical for finding information
,” confirms his daughter, Rose, aged 13.
“Facebook groups are a bit like the new village square, or the local café that has closed”
Fabrice Epelboin, Teacher specializing in social media and entrepreneur
“Facebook is today a meeting place between users. And groups, with their simple interface, have logically become an essential part of the social network
,” analyzes Anne Cordier, university professor of information and communication science.
“Facebook groups are a bit like the new village square, or the local café that has closed
,” agrees Fabrice Epelboin, teacher specializing in social media and entrepreneur.
On Facebook, there are groups for everything.
Whether it's finding a flea market near you, exchanging baby figurines or finding out who your naughty neighbor is.
Figaro screenshot
Users even have specific memories of the first Facebook pages intended for exchanges between middle or high school friends, even before these were called “groups”.
Like Farah, 25 years old.
“I moved when I was in fifth grade and my class, as well as that of my sister, had created a private page called “for Farah and Fiona to stay”
,” laughs the young woman.
“I remember that at that time, there were already pages for everything and nothing, often linked to Skyrock radio broadcasts
,” she describes.
“There were even strange ones, like the group “les BG [handsome kids, editor’s note] naughty men and women”
.
A space for the struggle of yellow vests against farmers
Over time, this wacky and good-natured discussion tool has evolved into a space for struggle specific to Facebook.
“The turning point came in 2017, shortly after the election
of Donald Trump
in the United States and a little before the
Cambridge Analytica scandal
,
” notes Fabrice Epelboin.
“Mark Zuckerberg (
the founder of Facebook, editor's note
), undertook to tour certain states to find out who the Trump voters were.
It was at that moment that he considered that there was a need to strengthen close social ties between people
.
The user subscription feed is then significantly modified.
Between photos of friends and the sharing of press articles, Facebook groups likely to interest the person are highlighted by the social network's algorithm.
“Practically overnight, the activity of these local groups became more visible
,” describes the teacher.
“That's how in these same groups of flea markets, people first started complaining about the move to 80 km/h then about the fuel tax, gradually giving birth to the yellow vest movement.
Without there even being any union behind it
. ”
On the left, in early 2019, popular Yellow Vests like Fly Rider regularly filmed themselves to describe the evolution of the movement and encourage other people to join them.
In January 2024, farmer support groups are multiplying and relaying the various actions carried out by farmers.
Figaro screenshot
Facebook groups are becoming a vector of social movements for the first time in France.
In December 2018, users organized themselves on these same pages to make their demands heard and filmed themselves in the first person.
In these short videos, they encourage the other members of the group to join the roundabouts while wearing a yellow vest.
“Facebook brings together a large audience, with people who share common socio-demographic characteristics.
As we have seen, this functionality was a way of consolidating this movement of yellow vests,”
underlines, in turn, David Lavaud, teacher at Celsa and specialist in media as well as digital technology.
Since then, the groups have been widely used to organize and propel the various forms of protests that followed.
Whether it is the demonstrations against the pension reform, or the more recent ones by farmers.
“If we take the example of farmers, there are a plethora of groups on Facebook where they help each other with the paperwork related to their profession and these same groups become a place to share their difficulties
,” continues Fabrice Epelboin.
“The problem is that these groups also serve as information channels and, unfortunately, spread fake news
. ”
A feature still exclusive to Facebook
If this functionality remains so popular with users of the social network, it is because no competing platform has really cloned it.
“It remains exclusive to Facebook.
Even the new
discussion channels created on Instagram
only allow influencers to publish messages
,” indicates media and digital specialist teacher David Lavaud.
“Moreover, if we look at alumni groups
[former students of a major school, editor's note]
, they now have huge communities that are difficult to move to another network.
This tool is therefore passed down between generations
.
“Facebook remains the social network for text par excellence and it is organized in a fairly academic way
,” also notes Anne Cordier.
“It still corresponds to a culture of blogs and that’s why it also remains popular with Internet users over 45.
”
However, the strength of Facebook groups could decline with the increasingly widespread use of messaging services such as WhatsApp (also owned by Meta) and Telegram.
These two platforms allow their users to easily create groups from their contacts and share information.
In France alone, WhatsApp has more than 40 million monthly active users.
“At the time of the pension reform, information on the high school blockade was shared on a Telegram group where students were added gradually,”
says Luc*, 16, before specifying: “
C 'has become the messaging service where activists come together
.'
The high school student only used Facebook groups
“to check the date of a gathering but without joining them”.
He who considers that this social network, which became popular when he was barely an infant, has become a little outdated.
*The first name has been changed