denying allegations of not doing enough to stop the spread of misinformation, especially related to politics and Covid.
Misinformation has been an increasing problem on most social platforms, but many observers allege that it thrives on Facebook, largely because of the company's inability or unwillingness to tackle the problem head-on. Multiple studies by reputable institutions have reiterated this point, including one by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, which last year fight against fake news and propaganda on the platform, but no matter what the company does, the problems keeps getting worse with every ing year.
The latest report comes from The Wall Street Journal, which claims to have reviewed internal company documents that reveal Facebook has a program called 'XCheck' (read 'cross check') that was originally intended as a quality-control measure for actions taken against high-profile s of politicians, celebrities, and journalists. While that seems like a good enough idea, it has since devolved into a shady list of over 5.8 million so-called "VIP" s who are allowed to get away with posting content that is in direct violation of the company's and conditions. The list also reportedly includes many "whitelisted" s who are practically immune to enforcement actions from the company.
When A Good Idea Goes Bad
The documents also reportedly show that the program has actively protected public figures, celebrities, and politicians even when their posts amounted to harassment or incitement of violence. As per the report, many such posts would have resulted in immediate punitive action in the case of regular s, but these elite s were let off with merely a slap on the wrist, if any action was taken at all. In fact, the confidential internal review clearly stated that the company was "not actually doing what we say we do publicly." What's more, it went on to call the company's action "a breach of trust" and itted that people on the whitelist are being allowed to violate Facebook's standards with impunity.
One of the notable cases of preferential treatment apparently relates to Brazilian soccer star Neymar, with the report claiming that the company did not act against him in 2019 after he posted nude photos and videos of a woman who had accused him of rape. The video, which the athlete claimed proved his innocence, was not deleted by Facebook for more than a day and was seen by more than 56 million Facebook and Instagram s in clear violation of the company's revenge porn rules. Many of these whitelisted s also reportedly shared fake news that the company's own fact checkers deemed false, including vaccine misinformation, as well as debunked propaganda against Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and other leading politicians.
Source: WSJ