Facebook on Friday will reportedly end its controversial policy of giving politicians an exemption to content moderation rules that apply to other users, a significant change that could result in more censorship of elected officials on the platform.
The social media giant will give greater clarity about its confusing system of punishment for rule violators, according to people familiar with the changes who told The Verge.
The policy changes come after Facebook’s independent Oversight Board, which reviews its most complicated content decisions, supported the platform’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump but criticized the tech giant for not consistently applying the same rules to all users — arguing it gave politicians a special pass.
In 2019, a group of Facebook employees asked for the social media platform’s content moderation exemption for politicians to come to an end, citing internal data that showed users were far more likely to believe falsehoods if shared by an elected official, according to The Information.
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Facebook is also expected to increase transparency about when it considers posts from politicians to be particularly newsworthy and are granted an exemption from content moderation rules that would otherwise break its rules, according to The Verge.
However, despite Facebook’s new policies for politicians, their content still won’t be scrutinized by the platform’s network of independent fact checkers, the news organization reported. However, posts from elected officials will be reviewed for content considered bullying that would be weeded out from other users.
When sharing content from external sources, politicians will continue to be scrutinized by fact-checkers. This can significantly reduce the amplication of a post on Facebook.
Facebook announced last week it would take new steps to reduce misinformation on its platform by censoring posts from users who repeatedly share content that fact-checkers have debunked. However, this policy will likely not apply to politicians.
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The social media giant said it would reduce the distribution of posts in the News Feed from individual users who have repeatedly shared content rated as falsehoods or misinformation by Facebook’s fact-checking partners. Facebook will also begin alerting people if they “like” a page that has continually shared false claims.
