Facebook is all set to end special treatment for politicians; read report

Facebook is reportedly planning to end the policy to protect politicians from content moderation rules. As per reports, Facebook is also planning to reveal its strikes system. It gives accounts for breaking its content rules. This is a significant change from its policies and comes when Facebook is supposed to announce its response to the recommendations made by its own independent oversight board for the suspension of Donald Trump’s account.

It has been a tough ride for platforms to regulate the content of political leaders. Both Facebook and Twitter have given politicians and other world leaders higher leverage than their other users. The oversight board funded by Facebook had ruled in its favour when it said that the decision to block the account of Donal Trump during the Capitol Hill riots was correct; however, they shouldn’t have done it indefinitely.

The oversight board have also given a few recommendations to Facebook for which the response is expected today. The board has asked for the same rules to be applied to all. However, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook supremo, has often argues that they should not moderate politicians. 

Currently, Facebook exempts the posts by politicians from being fact-checked. Its “newsworthiness exemption” allows politicians the freedom to break the rules for posting if the welfare of humans outweighs the harms for wrong information. 

However, this was not applied to the case of Donald Trump. The board recommended that considerations for newsworthiness should not be considered a priority when urgent actions need to be taken to prevent significant harm. They also asked that policies that determine newsworthiness should be defined well and communicated to its users.

Facebook has been criticized for its hands-off approach to regulate content. Facebook has also been criticised for the Trump ban as many considered that as an act of censorship. The board gave Facebook six months to decide the appropriate response on the Trump ban, whether his account will be restored, permanently blocked or suspended for a definite period. Facebook is yet to announce its decision.

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