Facebook has decided to give politicians a free hand by exempting them from their usual posting guidelines. The company said politicians could say what they want and they will not intervene in it. However, posts will be removed if there is any real-world violence involved in it, and they will still have to abide by the rules for running an ad.
The rule resembles the Twitter guidelines, and especially after controversies, Facebook plans to stay away from political issues as 2020 US presidential elections are also approaching.
At the Atlantic Festival, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s VP of Global Affairs and Communications, explained the policy saying that posts from politicians will not be removed from the platform even if they are not according to the community standards.
The purpose of allowing the post is to let politicians be seen and heard. The public interest would be given priority, and the speeches of politicians will be considered as newsworthy content.
However, paid ads will still have to be according to the preset standards, and speeches should not promote any violence. Clegg was of the view that politicians have negative remarks against each other, with or without Facebook. Let people judge politicians on their own.
According to Clegg, Facebook encourages freedom of speech and restricting, or censoring politicians’ opinion would be against their policy as well.
Last year Facebook announced that it would not forward the claims of politicians to fact-checking organizations. In case a previously debunked case is brought up by politician, only then it will be rechecked and compared with the fact-checker notes.
The company is defining rules to control unauthentic content and misinformation on the platform that is not official or might promote violence and harm.
Clegg, in his speech, also talked about the breaking up of Facebook saying pulling apart is not the solution to all the significant issues like privacy, data usage, or elections integrity.
Indeed it will not resolve these issues, but pulling apart such a large company means they will not have massive control over the internet, neither will have to set their own Supreme Court to manage the power responsibly.
Their primary part in the internet world is the reason for creating many alarming issues like the posts of politicians.
Read next: Snapchat keeps a collection of Facebook’s bad behavior in “Project Voldemort”
The rule resembles the Twitter guidelines, and especially after controversies, Facebook plans to stay away from political issues as 2020 US presidential elections are also approaching.
At the Atlantic Festival, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s VP of Global Affairs and Communications, explained the policy saying that posts from politicians will not be removed from the platform even if they are not according to the community standards.
The purpose of allowing the post is to let politicians be seen and heard. The public interest would be given priority, and the speeches of politicians will be considered as newsworthy content.
However, paid ads will still have to be according to the preset standards, and speeches should not promote any violence. Clegg was of the view that politicians have negative remarks against each other, with or without Facebook. Let people judge politicians on their own.
According to Clegg, Facebook encourages freedom of speech and restricting, or censoring politicians’ opinion would be against their policy as well.
Last year Facebook announced that it would not forward the claims of politicians to fact-checking organizations. In case a previously debunked case is brought up by politician, only then it will be rechecked and compared with the fact-checker notes.
The company is defining rules to control unauthentic content and misinformation on the platform that is not official or might promote violence and harm.
Clegg, in his speech, also talked about the breaking up of Facebook saying pulling apart is not the solution to all the significant issues like privacy, data usage, or elections integrity.
Indeed it will not resolve these issues, but pulling apart such a large company means they will not have massive control over the internet, neither will have to set their own Supreme Court to manage the power responsibly.
Their primary part in the internet world is the reason for creating many alarming issues like the posts of politicians.
Read next: Snapchat keeps a collection of Facebook’s bad behavior in “Project Voldemort”
