Facebook to end rule exemptions for politicians: Reports
San Francisco, Jun 4: Facebook plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that exempted politicians from certain moderation rules on its site, according to several news reports.
The company's rationale for that policy held that the speech of political leaders is inherently newsworthy and in the public interest even if it is offensive, bullying or otherwise controversial. The social media giant is currently mulling over what to do with the account of former President Donald Trump, which it indefinitely suspended Jan. 6, leaving it in Facebook limbo with its owners unable to post.
The change in policy was first reported by the tech site The Verge and later confirmed by the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Facebook has had a general newsworthiness exemption since 2016. But it garnered attention in 2019 when Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs and communications, announced that speech from politicians will be treated as newsworthy content that should, as a general rule, be seen and heard.
The newsworthiness exemption, he explained in a blog post at the time, meant that if someone makes a statement or shares a post which breaks our community standards we will still allow it on our platform if we believe the public interest in seeing it outweighs the risk of harm.
This hasn't given politicians unlimited license, however. When Facebook suspended Trump in January, it cited the risk of further incitement of violence following the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol as the reason. The company says it has never used the newsworthiness exemption for any of Trump's posts.
Facebook declined to comment.
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DK district Congress demands probe into alleged 'audio clip' of Nalin Kumar Kateel
Mangaluru, Jul 24: Congress leader and former minister B Ramanath Rai on Saturday criticised Dakshina Kannada MP and state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel over the recent viral audio clip that purportedly shows him discussing a leadership change in Karnataka and demanded a probe into it.
In the audio clip which went viral on July 18, Kateel is allegedly heard saying that the entire team of ministers, including K S Eshwarappa and Jagadish Shettar will be removed, and though there were three names for chief minister's post, they will not be considered.
However, Kateel has denied that it was his voice in the audio and asked the Chief Minister to hold an investigation.
Rai said BJP MLAs in the district can recognise the voice of Kateel, who has been here for 15 years.
The MP has admitted that the government is corrupt on the audio clip, which went viral on social media. It is undoubtedly the voice of Kateel, he said.
Demanding a probe in the matter, Rai said the police commissioner is an expert in handling cases relating to social media, but probe into this case has been delayed.
Rai also criticized the government on the ED raids on Dainik Bhaskar and Bharath Samachar soon after the two newspapers reported the Pegasus controversy.
