Facebook Reportedly Has Loopholes to Harass Famous People

Facebook has thousands of moderators that daily search through billions of posts to clean “inappropriate” content such as hate-mongering, bulling, fake information, pornography, suicide and so on. The rules keep changing, showing no mercy, even to world leaders, but users are so diverse that in the end no one is satisfied with the result.

Facebook’s moderation policies allow users to attack “public figures,” including with “calls for death,” without being suspended, The Guardian reported on Tuesday, citing leaked guidelines.

Public figures are characterized by internal moderator instructions as renowned persons who may become an object of discussion in social media. The list varies from politicians of all stripes to local celebrities, journalists who write or speak publicly, or users with an audience of over 100,000 people. It also includes “people who are mentioned in the title, subtitle or preview of 5 or more news articles or media pieces within the last 2 years.”

Facebook, according to the Guardian, assumes that they may become targets for certain types of abuse, as discussions “often include critical commentary of people who are featured in the news.” It’s legitimate to attack famous people, if they are not “purposefully exposed,” for example, tagged in a post, which is prohibited when it comes to private individuals.

According to Imran Ahmed, founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the differentiation between private and public individuals is “flabbergasting” as it endangers the safety of officials and other well-known people.

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“Despite high-profile attacks in recent years, including the murder of Jo Cox MP and the US Capitol domestic terrorist attacks, promoting violence against public servants is sanctioned by Facebook if they aren’t tagged in the post,” Ahmed said.

A Facebook spokesperson told the Guardian that the platform believes that it is important to allow critical discussion about politicians and other figures, but it doesn’t mean Facebook allows “people to abuse or harass them” on the apps.

Content moderation is a long-standing challenge for Facebook, constantly leading to scandals in a variety of situations, including interference in elections and the spread of the coronavirus. Recently, the social media platform has been accused of failing to provide a “safe” environment for users. Last week, Paris-based advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders filed a lawsuit alleging that Facebook’s policies are “largely mendacious” and contradicted by “the large-scale dissemination of hate speech and false information on its networks.”

Sourse: sputniknews.com