Facebook reverses policy protecting politicians from engaging in harmful speech

<div></div> <p><span class="HighlightShare-hidden" style="top:0;left:0"></span></p> <div class="InlineImage-imageEmbed hasBkg" id="ArticleBody-InlineImage-106716316" data-test="InlineImage"> <div class="InlineImage-wrapper"> <div class="InlineImage-imagePlaceholder" style="padding-bottom:56.25%"> <div> <div style="height:100%" class="lazyload-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <div> <div class="InlineImage-imageEmbedCaption">Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.</div> <div class="InlineImage-imageEmbedCredit">Erin Scott | Reuters</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="group"> <p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> on Friday announced a major reversal to its content moderation policies, saying politicians’ posts will no longer be exempt from the company’s rules that prevent users from engaging in harmful speech.</p> <p>The company also said Friday that Trump will remain suspended for two years, effective from the initial Jan. 7 suspension date</p> <div style="height:100%" class="lazyload-placeholder"></div> <p>This is 180-degree change for Facebook, which had previously vowed to uphold free speech and proclaimed that it <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/28/zuckerberg-facebook-twitter-should-not-fact-check-political-speech.html">should not be an arbiter of truth</a>. Most notably in the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. election, the company made the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/10/facebook-ignores-critiques-of-its-political-ads-policy.html">controversial decision</a> to allow politicians to run ads on Facebook even if they contained misinformation.</p> <p>The new policy comes after Facebook’s independent <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/05/facebook-will-keep-trump-ban-in-place.html">Oversight Board in May decided</a> to uphold the company’s decision to suspend the Facebook and Instagram accounts of former President Donald Trump. In its decision, however, the board noted that Facebook needed to re-asses how it moderates the speech of political leaders and clearly outline those rules for the public.</p> </div> <div id="ArticleBody-MobileAdhesion" class="MobileAdhesion-container" data-module="mps-slot"></div> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://patabook.com/technology/2021/06/05/facebook-reverses-policy-protecting-politicians-from-engaging-in-harmful-speech/">Facebook reverses policy protecting politicians from engaging in harmful speech</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://patabook.com/technology">Patabook Technology</a>.</p>

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