Facebook will now label posts that violate its rules but are still considered “newsworthy.”
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of the social media giant, said in a Facebook post on Friday that people should be able to view content “that would otherwise violate our policies if the public interest value outweighs the risk of harm.” He explained that the decision was made with consideration of how news organizations report what a politician says and stressed his belief that users should have the ability to see their statements on Facebook.
“We will soon start labeling some of the content we leave up because it is deemed newsworthy, so people can know when this is the case,” Zuckerberg said. “We’ll allow people to share this content to condemn it, just like we do with other problematic content, because this is an important part of how we discuss what’s acceptable in our society — but we’ll add a prompt to tell people that the content they’re sharing may violate our policies.”
Still, Zuckerberg warned that his company will draw the line, even for politicians or government officials, on posts that incite “violence or suppresses voting.” That sort of content will be removed, he said.
The crackdown by Facebook, which has about 2.6 billion active users, is the latest move by a social media platform to police rule-breaking or otherwise controversial material in their space. Twitter recently began to affix fact-checking and warning labels to tweets by President Trump, stirring outrage among his allies. Frustrated with a number of high-profile suspensions on Twitter, conservatives have begun to flock to a competitor known as Parler.
Facebook is also expanding what it views as hateful content in ads, a move that comes as a slew of companies, including Verizon and Unilever, have joined what is being called the “Stop Hate for Profit” boycott, pulling their advertising from the social media platform and others over its perceived unwillingness to address “hate speech” issues.
“Specifically, we’re expanding our ads policy to prohibit claims that people from a specific race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity or immigration status are a threat to the physical safety, health or survival of others,” Zuckerberg said. “We’re also expanding our policies to better protect immigrants, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from ads suggesting these groups are inferior or expressing contempt, dismissal or disgust directed at them.”
In addition, he announced that Facebook will ban all content that misinforms readers on “when or how they can vote.” Zuckerberg said the new policies are partly motivated by the company’s desire to be an ally for those fighting against racial injustice.
