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Facebook may soon end its controversial policy that protects politicians from content moderation rules that applies to normal users.

The social network giant may announce this new change as early as Friday. This is after an independent group funded by Facebook called Oversight Board reviewed Facebook’s content rulings.

This review led to the suspension of former US President Donald Trump. The board also criticized Facebook’s special treatment of politicians and said that the social media network should apply the same content moderation rules to all its users.

Facebook was given until June 5 to respond to the board’s recommendations.

As per sources, Facebook also plans to explain the secretive system of strikes it gives to users for violating its content rules. In the future, users will now know when they received a strike that could lead to account suspension.

In the past few years, Facebook is keeping a list of political accounts that are safe from being fact-checked or content moderation process that other accounts are subject to.

However, in 2019, a group of Facebook employees asked to dissolve the list, as an internal research revealed that it’s very likely that users would believe false information if an elected politician shares them.

During that same year, Facebook VP for global affairs Nick Clegg clarified by saying:

“we will treat speech from politicians as newsworthy content that should, as a general rule, be seen and heard.”

Still, Facebook would take action if politicians post illegal content like child pornography or comments that could discourage voting and cause physical harm.

However, once the new rule is applied, politicians are now subject to the regular content moderation process that normal users goes through.

Source: The Verge

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