Facebook Breaks Its Rules for Celebrities

Famous Facebook users are treated differently by the social network. It looks like the perfect illustration of Orwell’s “All animals are created equal but some are more than others.” At least Facebook does not deny the imperfection of its own rules about posts.

The program that may shield high-profile users was created as a part of a quality-control system. It is called “XCheck” and it has to protect the elite profile owners from Facebook’s own rules. Currently, Andy Stone, the spokesman of the network, is doing his best to protect the program from critics. He says that while the program is far from perfect, it was created as an attempt to guard users. According to him, the program that protects high-profile accounts was revealed back in 2018 and is no secret from the audience.

The report was published in the Wall Street Journal and it raised new concerns on the privacy and equality of Facebook profiles. It compares the posts from the accounts of high-profile users. It looks like Facebook easily removes the information that may harm the reputation of celebrities in no time like it was with naked photos of a woman on the page of soccer player Neymar who later accused him of rape.

It is not the first time users accuse Facebook of double-standard behavior when it comes to high-profile pages. The process of content moderation is under question for years. According to the Journal’s report, there are “white-listed” users who receive total support and protection from Facebook. Meanwhile, any harmful content may be ignored by Facebook moderators for weeks or months if there are no celebrities involved. According to the report, Facebook also covered up the post from Donald Trump calling refugees “animals”.

Facebook officials are actively trying to explain their doubtful decisions. Let’s hope users with less popular accounts will not feel inequality in the future. If you want to express your opinion about this situation, you can do it in the comments.