Just in case you harbor that sneaking suspicion that Facebook’s “hate speech” policy is inconsistent and incoherent, you now have your answer.
From FastCompany:
Facebook has gone out of its way this year to clarify its hate speech policy, explaining in March that it aims to be consistent with the type of content it removes.
So why has the social network appeared to have made an exception for Donald Trump, who recently posted a video saying Muslims should be barred from entering the United States? Facebook has removed statements similar to Trump’s proposal in the past, according to employees. And the decision to let Trump’s post remain public was made by the highest levels of management.
Publicly, the social network defines its policy against hate speech as “content that directly attacks people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, or gender identity, or serious disabilities or diseases.” And posts that contain such material may be removed.
On Monday, Donald Trump posted a video on his Facebook wall in which he said he was “calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”
To test the policy, Fast Company used a dummy account to post an update that included the same language used by Trump in his original video. It read, “I’m with Trump, it’s time for a ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.'” A few hours after flagging the post as inappropriate, it was removed by Facebook with the explanation that it violated Community Standards.
A spokesperson for Facebook, in a statement to Fast Company, said: “When we review reports of content that may violate our policies, we take context into consideration. That context can include the value of political discourse. Many people are voicing opinions about this particular content and it has become an important part of the conversation around who the next U.S. president will be. For those reasons, we are carefully reviewing each report and surrounding context relating to this content on a case by case basis.”
UPDATE: On November 12, Facebook removed another post on a Fast Companyemployee’s personal account that shared Trump’s original video, with the comment: “I totally agree with Donald Trump’s call for banning Muslims. Keep them out!” About 24 hours after it was first posted on Friday morning, it was removed with an explanation that it violated its Community Standards.
I guess you have to be a fellow billionaire for your hate speech to be considered acceptable by Zuckerberg.
For related articles, see:
Facebook Caught Secretly Lobbying for Privacy Destroying “Cyber Security” Bill
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Facebook Reveals its Master Plan – Control All News Flow
Facebook Does it Again – Company Sends Funeral Home Advertisements to Cancer Sufferer
A Very Disturbing and Powerful Post – “Get Your Loved Ones Off Facebook.”
Why You Should Think Twice Before Using Facebook’s Messenger App
Was the Department of Defense Behind Facebook’s Controversial Manipulation Study?
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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This is not a billionaire’s club gentlemen’s agreement, nor is Facebook doing Trump a favor.
Facebook is censoring Trump by hindering the dissemination of the message but without specifically censoring Trump.
Hate speech huh? So saying we should stop an influx of a demographic of people who harbors a subset that wishes to harm the people of the host country until such a time as that subset can be identified and stopped from entering the host country is hate speech? genius just genius
Politics aside its just common sense. I’m guessing that you would also be all for allowing people from a country with a lethal viral outbreak with a long germination period and no known way to currently detect it to freely enter an in affected country.