How to post anonymously on facebook page

Facebook has some fantastic features for Groups. And one of them is anonymous posting (where a member can post without their name). While this used to only be a feature accessible in parenting groups (learn about Facebook group types), it is now available to all group types, and if you have a Facebook Group, you can let members post anonymously.

After turning on anonymous posting within our Long Distance Relationship Group, we’ve found that our members are more engaged, post more regularly, and have more honest, open, and authentic conversations. For groups which discuss sensitive issues, many people feel safer posting anonymously, when they don’t have to expose their identity.

So, what are anonymous posts in Facebook Groups? And how are they used? More importantly, how do you turn them on in your group, and what are the things you need to be aware of before you do?

In this article you’ll learn what anonymous posts on Facebook are, how to turn the feature on in your group, how members can post anonymously once the feature is active, and other pro tips you should know from our experience using them in highly engaged groups.

Jump to: What are anonymous posts I Why people want to post anonymously I How to enable I Moderating anonymous posts I How FB can improve the feature

Anonymous posts in Facebook groups allow members to publish posts anonymously, without a name. Their identities are not revealed to members of the group, and they stay completely anonymous in comments when interacting within discussion in that specific thread.

The identity of an anonymous post will still be visible and accessible to group admins and moderators, and will be visible to Facebook itself for enforcing their Community Standards, however to every other member of the group, they show up as ‘Group Member’, as in the screenshot below.

Previously, members wondering how to publish anonymously on Facebook would message the group admins and ask them to post on their behalf. Which relies on the kindness of the admin / moderator they reach out to, and doesn’t give them the option to interact within the comments and actively engage in discussion.

The feature, released in 2020, allows members to post natively within a group as they would for any other post, but without their name being shown. While first only available in parenting groups, since June 2021 it has been made available to all group types.

Why Do People Want to Post Anonymously

People feel safer discussing sensitive topics in Facebook Groups when they are able to do so anonymously. This is especially true if the group is public.

And this is why the feature was first rolled out specifically for parenting groups.

The idea came from Facebook wanting to offer anonymous posts to parents; this specific group of people wanting a way to discuss topics they may not be comfortable sharing openly. That said, anonymous posting is a very useful feature for many other sensitive topics, and now that it’s available in all Facebook Groups, could be incredibly beneficial if your group discusses issues like:

• Sex, sexuality, sexism, or sexual identity
• Politics and religion
• Marginalization and social exclusion, including racism, ageism, classism, or discrimination
• Grief and loss, trauma, or violence
• The experience of being part of vulnerable populations (i.e disabilities)
• Job performance or competency
• Personal questions about relationships
• Money and financial hardship
• Hygiene-related discussion (i.e ‘Should I be showering more than once a week?’)
• Physical appearance and body parts
• Personal struggle, like alcoholism or mental health
• Ethically sensitive topics like animal tourism or breaking the law

There are many, many topics sensitive enough to benefit from anonymous posting, which is whyyou might consider the feature for your group.

Even when a group is private, people still feel far more comfortable knowing they can discuss sensitive issues via anonymous posting, whether because of friends, family and other connections are part of the same group (in our Long Distance Relationship Group this allows members to pose questions about their relationship with discretion, when their partner is also a member of the group; in one of our travel groups, this allows people to seek advice when planning a surprise trip for their partner who is in the same group), because they don’t wish to be contacted privately about their question, because they don’t wish to be embarrassed among their peers, or because they want to guarentee total privacy (ie anonymous posting means someone’s name can’t be screenshotted and forwarded on, despite a group being private).

Since enabling anonymous posting in Long Distance Relationships, the group is seeing a higher volume of posts, with more members posting, engagement has naturally increased, and the bonds between community members have been strengthened as more real, authentic topics are being discussed.

Anonymous posting has strengthened our community, and made it more valuable to members, which in turn makes it more valuable to us.

How to Enable Anonymous Posting in Your Facebook Group

Navigate to your Group Settings under the Admin Tools left sidebar. Within the box called Extra Features, click on the pencil icon next to Anonymous Posting to switch it on.

Hit save.

You’re done!

Anonymous posting is enabled. If you’d like to turn it off at any point, navigate back to the settings (note that when you toggle it off, all anonymous posts currently / previously in the group will disappear. They will be recovered once the feature is switched back on).

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How to Post Anonymously on Facebook

Once you’ve enabled the feature, members posting to your group will have the option to create an ‘Anonymous Post’.

When they click to create an anonymous post, they will be presented with the following warning:

Your post will appear in this group without your name. Your name will still be visible to the group’s admins and moderators and to Facebook’s systems. Details you include in the post could reveal your identity to group members.

After they accept this warning, they are then able to write something anonymously, adding photos, videos, GIFS, checking in, asking for recommendations, or adding feelings / activities as any other normal post would. Anonymous posts can create polls, events, and prompts.

Every member submitting an Anonymous post must complete a double opt-in. Once the author hits submit on their post, they then receive the same pop-up warning they received at the start of the process, and must hit submit a second time before it publishes.

Once submitted, the post will be sent to the group admins / moderators for approval. Even if post approval is not turned on for your group, you will still need to manually approve all anonymous posts to publish in the group feed. We assume this is because Facebook deems them to be risky, in forcing the hands on moderation of this feature.

You will receive a notification that a Group Member wishes to post anonymously. You can choose whether to accept or decline their post in the Pending Posts section of your Admin Tools panel.

How to Moderate Anonymous Posts in a Facebook Group

When an anonymous post is submitted for admin approval, you as the admin will be able to see who has submitted the post. They grey box in the above screenshot provides information about the member and their group activity, such as their total posts, total anonymous posts (the percentage of which have been approved or rejected), and if they have been reported by other group members in the last 90 days.

This information is only available to the group admin, and will disappear once you have approved or rejected the post (you won’t be able to pull it back up to reference again later). This information is there to assist you in making your decision.

When you approve an anonymous post, you will be reminded that the post will be published to the group without the member name, and that you should not add any identifying information about the member in the comments. When you decline a post, you have the same options to offer feedback, or click the group rule the post violated as you do with normal posts.

Respecting member privacy

Remember not to slip up in your moderation of anonymous threads, by dropping the person’s name, or even their gender in their defense, i.e ‘Sarah has asked a valid question, and you are expected to answer her politely’.

Instead, you should write ‘Group Member has asked a valid question, and you are expected to answer them politely’, using gender neutral pro-nouns, and the same terminology Facebook uses to identify anonymous posters.

We also suggest caution around messaging members whose anonymous posts you decline for not being in line with the group rules, as while you know who they are, and while they accept when submitting their post that the admin will see their name, they may still not be comfortable with uninvited contact about their sensitive situations.

Just because you can contact them about an anonymous post, doesn’t always mean you should.

In the below screenshot, an anonymous post was submitted which included issues and allegations of abuse, violence, and suicide, in an exceptionally detailed way, which was deemed not appropriate for our group. While our typical approach would be to message a member to explain how their question could be rephrased in line with the group rules, or to confirm if we can offer help or assistance, the expectation of remaining anonymous is not something to break lightly.

Instead, we go the route of inviting them in our declined feedback to message the admin if they so choose, so we can assist. This gives them the power of choice, and does not breach their privacy or make them feel uncomfortable, but makes them aware that the offer of help and assistance is there.

We aim to find a way to be helpful, while doing our best to avoid making it worse. You can also direct these members in your feedback to Facebook’s Emotional Health Resource hub at facebook.com/emotional_health

Ways Facebook Could Improve This Feature

The ability to post anonymously within Facebook Groups is a fantastic feature, and it currently runs very smoothly. There are certain limitations to the functionality however, which are worthwhile keeping in mind, and which we feel could be improved.

1. Currently, the feature only facilitates anonymous posting, and only the author may remain anonymous within the comments of the thread. The option for members to comment on other member’s threads anonymously is not currently offered, though we feel would greatly improve the experience – if members could contribute to sensitive discussions started by others, by commenting anonymously.

1. There are also no current insights on member use of the feature, which would be a helpful data point for Facebook to include under Engagement Insights, i.e. to know the percentage of posts to the group which are anonymous vs those which are not. Currently, it’s easy to tell if you’re approving a large volume of anonymous posts that it has been a beneficial feature, however for those with teams who split the post approval duties, insights into the use of this feature would be quite valuable, especially if you’ve sacrificed features under other group types in favor of switching to a Parenting group for access to anonymous posts.

   In the meantime, if wanting to assess how group members feel about the anonymous posting feature, you can always run a poll.

3. Difficulty with long term access to the identity of the Anonymous Poster

A further limitation is that the identity behind an anonymous post is only available while in the pending post queue, and is not easily accessible by the admin team thereafter. What this means for a group with multiple admins or moderators (or a sole admin without a photographic memory!), is that you won’t easily be able to identify the member behind an anonymous post published by someone else, or published far enough in the past that you can’t remember who posted (for instance if an anonymous member starts abusing other members in the comments of the thread, and you need to remove them from the group).

There is a workaround to this, but it involves some investigation, and is not definitive.

When an admin or moderator clicks on ‘Group Member’ in an anonymous post (in our opinion this would be the most ideal place for Facebook to make available the identity of the author), you have information about which admin / moderator approved the post. This is clickable, and will take you to the group activity log, where you can start a search for the information.

Once you’re in the group Activity Log (part of your Admin Tools panel), select filters for the admin / moderator who approved the post, change the ‘Activity Type’ filter to Content Moderation, and set the date the post was published.

You will then be presented with a list of the moderator activity from that admin, and can narrow down the identity of the poster by the information. Notably, you won’t have a definitive answer here, as the approved anonymous post is not linked here, even though the action of approval has been logged.

If there were multiple anonymous posts approved on the same day, around the same time you may be out of luck, however generally, you should get your answer by matching the timestamp from the admin activity log to the timestamp on the anonymous post.

5. Loss of anonymous post content

You can enable and disable this feature as many times as you like, freely and without limitation. However when you turn it off, be aware that all previous anonymous posts will disappear.

Facebook provides no warning or information that this will happen when you turn it off (which we would love to see improved), so it’s a case of realizing this is the case once it’s already happened.

Fortunately, if you enable it again in the future, all previous anonymous posts re-appear and become available within the group again. But you can’t keep them if you decide to permanently switch it off.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Anonymous Posts in Facebook Groups

Can I post anonymously in Facebook Groups?

Yes. As an admin, you will need to enable this feature in your Group settings.

Is anonymous posting available in both private and public groups?

Yes, anonymous posting can be turned on in both private and public groups, regardless of your group type.

Who can see my identity when I post anonymously in Facebook Groups?

Only the group admins / moderators, and Facebook itself can see the identity behind anonymous posts in groups. The identity of the poster remains hidden from all group members, including when they contribute to discussion in the comments of that thread.

Can you post anonymously on Facebook outside of groups? (ie Pages)

Not to our current knowledge. This feature is currently only available for Groups.

Why do people want to post anonymously?

People feel safer discussing sensitive topics in Facebook Groups when they are able to do so anonymously. This is especially true if the group is public.

Why can't I Post anonymously on Facebook?

What does Post anonymously mean on Facebook?