The disclosures offer new details about the company’s treatment of politicians who violate its rules, an issue that was brought to the fore by the platform’s suspension of former president Donald Trump’s account after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. For years, Facebook has been criticized for giving too much deference to politicians such as Trump who broke the platform’s rules, while conservatives have said Facebook’s suspension of Trump was overly punitive of a world leader.
Last fall, the company’s Oversight Board criticized Facebook for failing to be transparent about the exemptions it grants high-profile users who break the platform’s rules. The board’s criticism came after a Wall Street Journal report detailed the platform’s “cross check” program, which shields selected users from the company’s regular content-moderation system, though the newsworthy exemption operates separately.
Facebook said that it was releasing the data in response to the Oversight Board’s criticism and that it would update the numbers in future reports.
Under its current rules, Facebook may determine a post is newsworthy — and therefore exempt from its community standards — if it raises awareness of an imminent threat to public health or safety or adds to a public debate in politics.
Facebook spokeswoman Jen Ridings confirmed none of the 13 politicians granted exemptions are American. Of the 55 other exemptions, one was a post from the United States, Ridings said. The company provided few other details about the exempted posts, but on its website, it gave three examples.
One was a video from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry that showed an unidentified charred body. Facebook said the post would have normally been removed for violating its rules against violent and graphic content but the company determined it was newsworthy because it depicted an ongoing armed conflict.
In another, Facebook granted reprieve to an unnamed Brazilian politician’s post that included a short movie clip that depicted uncovered female nipples. The company said it applied the exemption because the post was discussing the artistic value of the work and criticizing the government for not properly funding the film industry.
Facebook also exempted a news report alleging police brutality during a protest in Colombia in which a slur can be heard in the background. The company determined the value of the video to the public interest outweighed the harm of hearing the slur. Facebook said it also applied a warning screen over the content because of the graphic nature of the video.
Since 2016, Facebook has evaluated whether the newsworthiness of political speech outweighs its propensity to cause harm. Facebook said in June 2021 that it would no longer automatically give politicians a pass for newsworthiness when they break the company’s rules.
