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Politico | Zuckerberg says Facebook will revisit policies in wake of Trump backlash

  • The social media giant will re-examine its policies against ‘threats of state use of force’ and voter suppression efforts
  • It also plans to make the company’s decision-making process on content more transparent

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Facebook chairman and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg speaks at an event in Washington in October of last year. Zuckerberg said the company plans to create new products that “advance racial justice”. Photo: Agence France-Presse
POLITICO
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the social media giant will re-examine its policies against violent threats and voter suppression after facing intense backlash, particularly from its own employees, over the company’s handling of incendiary posts by US President Donald Trump.
In a lengthy Facebook post on Friday, Zuckerberg said he wanted to “acknowledge the real pain expressed by members of our community” over the company’s decision not to take any action on a Trump post that appeared to threaten protesters with violence. The move has sparked unrest at the company, with scores of employees publicly denouncing the decision and skipping work in protest.

In response, the tech mogul said the company will be revisiting its policies against “threats of state use of force” and voter suppression efforts, as well as its current “binary” standard of either taking down or leaving up posts that may incite violence.

“We’re going to review potential options for handling violating or partially-violating content aside from the binary leave-it-up or take-it-down decisions,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I know many of you think we should have labelled the President’s posts in some way last week.”

Zuckerberg also teased an array of other possible follow-up actions, including making the company’s decision-making process on content decisions more transparent, expanding the diversity of groups involved in shaping its decisions and creating new products that “advance racial justice”. But the post contained little to no concrete commitments.

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