Facebook Employees Rail Against Donald Trump’s Posts As Hate Speech That Violates The Site’s TOS
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has accused the election of being rigged with the participation of a biased media, and if the largest social network in the world started deleting his posts, he'd have more ammunition to fire off those claims. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg isn't going to let that happen, though his underlings continue to put pressure on the site's co-founder to do exactly that, claiming that some of Trump's posts on banning Muslims run afoul of the site's rules on hate speech.
Citing unnamed sources with familiarity on the subject, The Wall Street Journal says the topic of whether or not to delete some of Trump's post is a heated one. It's a point of contention among Facebook employees, who took the issue all the way to the top, that being Zuckerberg, effectively the Supreme Court of the social network. Much to the chagrin of those pushing for permission to delete some of Trump's posts, Zuckerberg ruled in December that it would be inappropriate to censor the candidate.
Not all employees took the decision well. Some have complained on Facebook's internal messaging board, others accused Zuckerberg of ignoring the site's rules for Trump, and some even threatened to resign over the matter.
A spokeswoman for Facebook provided at statement to WSJ saying that those in charge of reviewing content for the site take into consideration the context of a post when deciding whether or not to remove it. And one thing they consider is 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," the spokeswoman said.
As the election draws near, Facebook is loosening its policies, not tightening them. Senior members added to the spokeswoman's statement that in the coming weeks, reviewers will allow "more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest—even if they might otherwise violate our standards."
There are some uncomfortable topics and rhetoric surrounding this election and it appears that Facebook has decided not to shy away from them. And to be clear, Trump's camp says no one from Facebook has ever asked the candidate to take down a post.
"Facebook has never contacted us about employee complaints and has never removed a post," a spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign said. "We are not concerned about the liberal Clinton elites who are so intolerant of conservative ideas that they would seek to censor the Trump campaign’s enormously successful Facebook engagement."
It's a braggadocios statement, but not incorrect. Donald Trump has amassed over 11.6 million "Likes" on his page, which is 4 million more than Hillary Clinton and only about 300,000 less than Clinton and Bernie Sanders combined.
Citing unnamed sources with familiarity on the subject, The Wall Street Journal says the topic of whether or not to delete some of Trump's post is a heated one. It's a point of contention among Facebook employees, who took the issue all the way to the top, that being Zuckerberg, effectively the Supreme Court of the social network. Much to the chagrin of those pushing for permission to delete some of Trump's posts, Zuckerberg ruled in December that it would be inappropriate to censor the candidate.
Not all employees took the decision well. Some have complained on Facebook's internal messaging board, others accused Zuckerberg of ignoring the site's rules for Trump, and some even threatened to resign over the matter.
A spokeswoman for Facebook provided at statement to WSJ saying that those in charge of reviewing content for the site take into consideration the context of a post when deciding whether or not to remove it. And one thing they consider is 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," the spokeswoman said.
As the election draws near, Facebook is loosening its policies, not tightening them. Senior members added to the spokeswoman's statement that in the coming weeks, reviewers will allow "more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest—even if they might otherwise violate our standards."
There are some uncomfortable topics and rhetoric surrounding this election and it appears that Facebook has decided not to shy away from them. And to be clear, Trump's camp says no one from Facebook has ever asked the candidate to take down a post.
"Facebook has never contacted us about employee complaints and has never removed a post," a spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign said. "We are not concerned about the liberal Clinton elites who are so intolerant of conservative ideas that they would seek to censor the Trump campaign’s enormously successful Facebook engagement."
It's a braggadocios statement, but not incorrect. Donald Trump has amassed over 11.6 million "Likes" on his page, which is 4 million more than Hillary Clinton and only about 300,000 less than Clinton and Bernie Sanders combined.
