{"id":752747,"date":"2021-09-14T19:35:57","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T23:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=752747"},"modified":"2021-09-14T19:36:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T23:36:03","slug":"report-secret-facebook-program-exempted-celebrities-vips-from-moderation-policies-internal-review-calls-it-breach-of-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-secret-facebook-program-exempted-celebrities-vips-from-moderation-policies-internal-review-calls-it-breach-of-trust\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Secret Facebook Program Exempted Celebrities, VIPs From Moderation Policies, Internal Review Calls It \u2018Breach of Trust\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freport-secret-facebook-program-exempted-celebrities-vips-from-moderation-policies-internal-review-calls-it-breach-of-trust%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=752747&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1233233654-scaled-1.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>For years, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has insisted that the ground is level on his platform, and the company treats its nearly three billion users equally. But according to a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-files-xcheck-zuckerberg-elite-rules-11631541353?mod=rss_Technology\">Wall Street Journal<\/a> report, a secret Facebook program known as \u201cX-Check\u201d or \u201cCross-Check\u201d has long allowed celebrities, politicians, and other high-profile accounts to avoid policies other users must follow.<\/p>\n<p>A confidential, internal audit the outlet managed to obtain found that Cross-Check has permitted millions of famous users to post bullying, sexual material, hate speech, incitement to violence, and other banned content without censure. Some privileged users enjoy a totally hands-off approach while rule-violating posts from others are flagged for reviews that never come.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Whitelist<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Originally, Cross-Check was intended to help Facebook avoid PR issues that might crop up from censoring or deplatforming famous users with an additional layer of review. In practice, the company\u2019s researchers found it resulted in many high-profile accounts being \u201cwhitelisted.\u201d These individuals could say what they liked without the threat of penalties ordinary users experience at the hands of Facebook\u2019s moderators and algorithms.<\/p>\n<p>For example, in 2019 Facebook allowed Brazilian soccer player Neymar to post nude images of a woman who had accused him of rape on an account followed by tens of millions of fans. Facebook eventually took the photos down, but not as quickly as it would have in other cases. The Journal says the review also shows that the company allowed VIPs to incorrectly claim that former President Donald Trump said asylum-seeking refugees are \u201canimals\u201d and that Hillary Clinton led a pedophile ring.<\/p>\n<p>The Journal reported Facebook researchers found the company\u2019s favoritism to those users \u201cto be both widespread and \u2018not publicly defensible.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A 2019 internal memo titled \u201cThe Political Whitelist Contradicts Facebook\u2019s Core Stated Principles\u201d detailed the disconnect between the social media giant\u2019s public stance and its actual practice. The researchers called the program a \u201cbreach of trust\u201d and stated, \u201cWe are not actually doing what we say we do publicly\u2026Unlike the rest of our community, these people can violate our standards without any consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Journal\u2019s reporting concluded that, based on these documents, Facebook\u2019s public responses to questions about its oversight policies and procedures\u2014including those it has provided in Congressional hearings \u2014 are often misleading or partial. It said the company had disguised the extent of leadership\u2019s knowledge of these problems.<\/p>\n<p>The Oversight Board, the independent body instituted in 2018 that Facebook describes as a kind of \u201csupreme court\u201d that settles precedent-setting moderation questions, said Monday that it has called on the company to address the murky rules it applies to celebrities in the past. &nbsp;\u201cThe Oversight Board has expressed on multiple occasions its concern about the lack of transparency in Facebook\u2019s content moderation processes, especially relating to the company\u2019s inconsistent management of high-profile accounts,\u201d it posted in a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OversightBoard\/status\/1437434013153640455?s=20\">Twitter thread<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It went on, \u201cThe Board has repeatedly made recommendations that Facebook be far more transparent in general, including about its management of high-profile accounts, while ensuring that its policies treat all users fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Facebook\u2019s Response<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Facebook\u2018s policy communications director Andy Stone addressed The Journal\u2019s report on Twitter Monday, saying in a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/andymstone\/status\/1437460926635126787?s=20\">thread<\/a>, \u201cAs we said in 2018: \u2018Cross-check\u2019 simply means that some content from certain Pages or Profiles is given a second layer of review to make sure we\u2019ve applied our policies correctly.\u2019 There aren\u2019t two systems of justice; it\u2019s an attempted safeguard against mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continued:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"29\">\n<p><em>In his article, [Wall Street Journal reporter] Jeff Horwitz quotes Mark Zuckerberg making statements to Congress about our misinformation policies and Fact Checking program. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Yet he relates those to issues with the cross-check program as a way of conflating the programs and misleading readers about the context of the remarks to Congress. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Journal\u2019s reporting also suggests we were not clear about the ability of politicians to speak freely on the platform \u2014 suggesting this somehow a secret protection. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>But since 2019, when we, ourselves, promoted that the company would take this approach to politicians\u2019 speech, there have been literally hundreds of news stories critical of our approach. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In the end, at the center of this story is Facebook\u2019s own analysis that we need to improve the program. We know our enforcement is not perfect and there are tradeoffs between speed and accuracy. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The WSJ piece repeatedly cites Facebook\u2019s own documents pointing to the need for changes that are in fact already underway at the company. We have new teams, new resources and an overhaul of the process that is an existing work-stream at Facebook.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But according to The Journal, the internal documents prove that \u201cFacebook knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>More to Come<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The outlet concluded by saying this will be only the first in a series of articles based on internal documents, as well as interviews with dozens of current and former employees.<\/p>\n<p>The second <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739?reflink=desktopwebshare_twitter\">report<\/a>, published Tuesday, found that the company had reason to know its sister platform, Instagram, has been damaging to the mental health of teens in ways specific to that app. The Journal promises further reporting will be forthcoming.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For years, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has insisted that the ground is level on his platform, and the company treats its nearly three billion users equally. But according &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-752747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}