scorecardresearch
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Support Our Journalism
HomeTechFacebook's internal guidelines let users 'call for death of public figures’: Guardian...

Facebook’s internal guidelines let users ‘call for death of public figures’: Guardian report

The Guardian report says Facebook allows the abuse because it wants to 'allow discussion, which often includes critical commentary of people who are featured in the news’.

Follow Us :
Text Size:

New Delhi: Social media giant Facebook’s policy “explicitly allows” its users to abuse public figures and even call for their death, according to a report in The Guardian.

The exclusive report by the UK media outlet, published on 23 March, said Facebook’s internal guidelines for content moderators — “leaked” to the publication — allow users to target “public figures” with “calls for [their] death”, among other types of “abuse”.

The public figures are “considered to be permissible targets” of abuse “because we want to allow discussion, which often includes critical commentary of people who are featured in the news”, the report quoted Facebook’s explanation to its moderators.

The Guardian report said all these emerged at a time when social media networks are met with “renewed criticism” of abuse on the platforms, some of which were directed at Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle, who reportedly quit social media in January this year after becoming “disillusioned” by the “hate” they received online.

A Facebook spokesperson told The Guardian it’s “important to allow critical discussion” involving public figures, but insisted it doesn’t allow people to “abuse or harass them on our apps”.


Also read: ‘Details matter, will study rules’ — Facebook’s guarded response to Modi govt’s new norms


Who is a ‘public figure’ according to Facebook?

The detailed internal moderator guidelines dating from December 2020 and running into more than 300 pages spells out how it differentiates between protections for private and public individuals.

The Guardian report, however, described Facebook’s definition for public figures as “broad”.

It said “all politicians count” in this definition, regardless of their seniority and stature within the government and whether they are elected or “are standing for office”.

Journalists employed “to write/speak publicly” are also considered public figures.

Online social media users with over 1 lakh “fans” and followers also count as public figures.

People mentioned in the news also count as public figures where the person is “mentioned in the title, subtitle or preview of 5 or more news articles or media pieces within the last 2 years”, with the exception of children under the age of 13.

In addition, those who “are not true celebrities, and who have not engaged with their fame, UNLESS they have been accused of criminal activity” are “involuntary public figures”.

The Guardian report added that Facebook has a “secret list” of involuntary public persons, but the list was not in the internal documents “seen by the Guardian”. However, having a social media presence is considered “de facto evidence” of users engaging “with their fame” and, hence, is open to being considered a public figure.

Facebook’s protection for public figures

While Facebook believes in allowing its users to question public figures and use “figurative speech” like “Boris Johnson should just drop dead or resign already” or “just die already [Jair] Bolsonaro, you are not making it any better for your people”, the company is working on updating its definition of a public figure to provide more protection from threats and abuse, especially to those like activists and journalists who are considered “high-risk individuals”.

However, at present, Facebook’s bullying and harassment policy does not allow public figures to be targeted with “direct threats” of physical harm, degrading sexual terms, or threats to leak personal information, The Guardian report said.

Facebook’s publicly available bullying and harassment policy says, “For public figures, we remove attacks that are severe as well as certain attacks where the public figure is directly tagged in the post or comment…”

The policy does not allow comments about public figures that are “purposefully exposing” them to calls for their death either, or “content that praises, celebrates or mocks their death or serious physical injury”.

A Facebook spokesperson told The Guardian: “We think it’s important to allow critical discussion of politicians and other people in the public eye. But that doesn’t mean we allow people to abuse or harass them on our apps.”

The company also said they are exploring ways to protect public figures from harassment.

“We remove hate speech and threats of serious harm no matter who the target is, and we’re exploring more ways to protect public figures from harassment.”

The spokesperson said the company intends to make “more of these documents public over time”.

(Edited by Debalina Dey)


Also read: Facebook’s reluctance to take down problem posts must force India towards co-regulation


 

Subscribe to our channels on YouTube, Telegram & WhatsApp

Support Our Journalism

India needs fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism, packed with on-ground reporting. ThePrint – with exceptional reporters, columnists and editors – is doing just that.

Sustaining this needs support from wonderful readers like you.

Whether you live in India or overseas, you can take a paid subscription by clicking here.

Support Our Journalism

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular