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posted by janrinok on Tuesday September 14 2021, @01:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the double-standard dept.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/09/leaked-documents-reveal-the-special-rules-facebook-uses-for-5-8m-vips/

Facebook had a problem on its hands. People were making posts that got caught in the company's automated moderation system or were taken down by its human moderators. The problem wasn't that the moderators, human or otherwise, were wrong to take down the posts. No, the problem was that the people behind the posts were famous or noteworthy, and the company didn't want a PR mess on its hands.

So Facebook came up with a program called XCheck, or cross check, which in many instances became a de facto whitelist. Over the years, XCheck has allowed celebrities, politicians, athletes, activists, journalists, and even the owners of "animal influencers" like "Doug the Pug" to post whatever they want, with few to no consequences for violating the company's rules.

"For a select few members of our community, we are not enforcing our policies and standards," reads an internal Facebook report published as part of a Wall Street Journal investigation. "Unlike the rest of our community, these people can violate our standards without any consequences."

"Few" must be a relative term at Facebook, as at least 5.8 million people were enrolled in the program as of last year, many of them with significant followings. That means a large number of influential people are allowed to post largely unchecked on Facebook and Instagram.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14 2021, @05:29PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14 2021, @05:29PM (#1177765)

    > There are laws that explicitly have double standards.

    Then VOTE for someone else. The laws are made by those we elect so ultimately we decide the laws. This results in a compromise, not a perfect set. Better than any other option known.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14 2021, @05:40PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14 2021, @05:40PM (#1177771)

    Part of this discussion is to inform people that our current regulators are passing bad laws and we should either get them to change the laws or vote them out.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @04:41PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @04:41PM (#1178033)

      Well my reading of your post was that the existence of an unfair law is proof that the current system needs to be changed. Perhaps I misunderstood? There is no perfect set of laws, just like there is no perfect organism. As long as we have the back-and-forth of feedback then we are doing as best as one can, IMHO. Tearing it all down... for what? Something better? Show me.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @08:42PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @08:42PM (#1178098)

        No, just that the law needs to be changed. I am just pointing out which laws need to be changed. Making more people aware of a bad law is the first step towards getting it changed.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @09:07PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @09:07PM (#1178107)

        Well my reading of your post suggests that we shouldn't discuss bad laws whatsoever.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @09:09PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @09:09PM (#1178108)

          (We should just shut up and accept them).