Facebook has added another useful feature to show support for black communities on the platform. Facebook is making it easier for users to find Black-owned businesses on its platform. The new feature is part of the company’s ongoing initiative, announced in June that aims to aid Black communities.
Facebook has clarified about the update on an official blog as below:
“Black-owned businesses have faced systemic barriers for generations – and the huge amount of interest we received from these businesses has confirmed just how enormous the challenges they continue to face really are. That is why we doubled down on investing in and building tools to help this community.”
How does the “Black-owned business” feature work?
This feature would be available to the admins of Black-owned businesses, and they can now self-identify, and these businesses would be shown in a subsection among the Facebook businesses nearby.
There is no badge or label that will be displayed to represent these types of businesses on Facebook. Instead, this will allow a business to appear in the “Black-owned Businesses” subsection located in the “Business Nearby” tab. The tech giant is also allowing minority-owned businesses to identify their listings, too.
Putting this feature aside, Facebook has thought of a new thing for the black communities again. Facebook also announced that it is allocating $40 million to grants provided to small Black businesses.
Black-owned businesses with up to 50 employees can apply for this grant money, and the company will select 10,000 Black-owned businesses to award the funds. In June, Facebook pledged to invest $200 million to support Black-owned businesses and organizations — half of that fund was invested in small Black-owned businesses, creators, and nonprofits working with Black communities, and the remaining half was for suppliers.
