Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That's Exempt.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

the facebook files

Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That’s Exempt.

A program known as XCheck has given millions of celebrities, politicians and other high-profile users special treatment, a privilege many abuse

By Jeff Horwitz
https://twitter.com/JeffHorwitz
[e-mail]
Sept. 13, 2021 10:21 am ET

Mark Zuckerberg has publicly said Facebook Inc. allows its more than three billion users to speak on equal footing with the elites of politics, culture and journalism, and that its standards of behavior apply to everyone, no matter their status or fame.

In private, the company has built a system that has exempted high-profile users from some or all of its rules, according to company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

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Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-files-xcheck-zuckerberg-elite-rules-11631541353

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Mark Zuckerberg has publicly said that Facebook allows its more than three billion users to speak on equal footing with the elites of politics, culture and journalism, and that its standards of behavior apply to everyone, no matter their status or fame

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[irisblue]

1. surprise!surprise!surprise!

[Marthe48]

2. In spite of history, we still try to be kingmakers

My brother had a friend, and people often said he looked like Kenny Rogers. He'd retort, "NO! Kenny Rogers looks like me!" Way to keep the playing field equal

[Scrivener7]

3. Shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

[luxmatic]

4. Paywalled

Are there other sources?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. Your public library.

Many libraries subscribe to The Wall Street Journal., either in print form or in electronic form. With your library card number, you can log in online and read the article in a database.

[OnlinePoker]

13. You can listen to the article. It's 2 minutes.

At least, the opening part.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

19. I see that for most stories in The Wall Street Journal. Does that work for non-subscribers too? NT

[OnlinePoker]

20. Worked for me and I don't subscribe. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. A couple of other sites re-reporting the WSJ

https://uk.pcmag.com/social-media/135626/facebooks-xcheck-program-reportedly-gives-elite-users-special-treatment
https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/13/22671565/facebook-xcheck-moderation-system-high-profile-exemptions

[Haggard Celine]

5. They let Trump get away with all sorts of shit before they

finally banned him. Twitter did the same. I guess that's the kind of thing you can expect in media, though. They all have favorites and others that they don't care for. Such is life!

[Champp]

6. Ya have to wonder which Republican/Russian has the Q check

I guess the guy with the Z check knows.

[The Wizard]

24. I was permanently suspended for undefined offenses.

I was once suspended for saying "Hitler was a Red Sox fan." FB jail is now a badge of honor. Want to get suspended? Try this: Zuck Fuckerberg.

[orangecrush]

8. Facebook needs to be broken up

Just a data mine.

[Ford_Prefect]

10. Always was from the beginning since it was planned to be that.

Sell, sell, sell, sell everything you stand for
Tell, tell, tell, tell all the people that you care for
Running here, running there
Keep it moving, sonny, don't despair
Because the next one will be, the next one will be, the next one will be, the best one of the year.

Sell Sell by Alan Price, O Lucky Man! 1973

[TimeToGo]

15. Smile while you're making it

I frankly have forgotten whether the film was any good or not.

But, I did listen to the music many, many times.

[modrepub]

9. Yawn

I'll probably get slammed but this is not much of a surprise. As a business, you reward your best customers. Those that generate the most business (eyeballs in the Facebook world) get treated differently.

TFG violated just about every rule in the book on social media (and social graces for that matter) and in just about every case he was given a pass. With millions of followers (who most likely would have defended him or threatened to do something else) social media wasn't going to just follow its rules blindly. They finally did do something when by not acting there would have been even more trouble.

While equal treatment is a noble goal, it's often much harder to actually do. Not saying this is right. It's certainly a good idea for those controlling social media to have to answer for their behavior. And another reason why I generally avoid engaging on the internet in general (except for here and a few other places).

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. Who is surprised by this?

[Steelrolled]

12. Private company.

They make the rules. They enforce the rules.

[packman]

14. You mean to say the rich and connected elite

have special privileges - That is hard to believe in this land of equality . My black, oriental, female, gay,poor, etc. friends are going to have a difficult time believing this.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. 5.8 million - this is more than just "celebrities". Example: major celeb got away with revenge porn

It's anyone they might ever possibly want to advocate for them, or not to have a 'bad' (ie typical, for the rest of us) impression of Facebook - any politician at any level, any journalist.

This, however, is a major celebrity, doing something that should have got him banned:

Among them is soccer star Neymar. In 2019, he posted nude photos of a woman who had accused him of rape to his Facebook accounts, according to the report. This type of content would have typically been removed, but XCheck protected Neymar’s account and blocked Facebook moderators from taking it down right away.

Ultimately, 56 million Facebook and Instagram users saw Neymar’s content, according to the report.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/13/facebook-shields-millions-of-vip-users-from-moderation-protocols.html

[empedocles]

18. Fits moscow mark all right

[LetMyPeopleVote]

21. Mark Zuckerberg Is a liar

[Initech]

22. So that's how Trump was able to spew his garbage on Twitter and get away with it.

[Slammer]

23. news?

Yeah, how is this even considered news?

It's obvious that Facebook has some rules for some people and no rules for others.

Whether they'd admit to it or not, it's out there in the public for everyone to see.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

25. Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead.

This is part of a series of articles.

the facebook files

Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead.

Internal memos show how a big 2018 change rewarded outrage and that CEO Mark Zuckerberg resisted proposed fixes

By Keach Hagey and Jeff Horwitz
https://twitter.com/keachhagey
https://www.facebook.com/keach.hagey
[e-mail]
https://twitter.com/JeffHorwitz
[e-mail]
Sept. 15, 2021 9:26 am ET

In the fall of 2018, Jonah Peretti, chief executive of online publisher BuzzFeed, emailed a top official at Facebook Inc. The most divisive content that publishers produced was going viral on the platform, he said, creating an incentive to produce more of it.

He pointed to the success of a BuzzFeed post titled “21 Things That Almost All White People are Guilty of Saying,” which received 13,000 shares and 16,000 comments on Facebook, many from people criticizing BuzzFeed for writing it, and arguing with each other about race. Other content the company produced, from news videos to articles on self-care and animals, had trouble breaking through, he said.

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

26. Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show

the facebook files

Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show

Its own in-depth research shows a significant teen mental-health issue that Facebook plays down in public

By Georgia Wells, Jeff Horwitz and Deepa Seetharaman
https://twitter.com/georgia_wells
https://www.facebook.com/georgia.e.wells
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https://twitter.com/JeffHorwitz
[e-mail]
https://twitter.com/dseetharaman
https://www.facebook.com/deepa.seetharaman
[e-mail]
Sept. 14, 2021 7:59 am ET

About a year ago, teenager Anastasia Vlasova started seeing a therapist. She had developed an eating disorder, and had a clear idea of what led to it: her time on Instagram.

She joined the platform at 13, and eventually was spending three hours a day entranced by the seemingly perfect lives and bodies of the fitness influencers who posted on the app.

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

27. Facebook Employees Flag Drug Cartels and Human Traffickers. The Company's Response Is Weak ...

the facebook files

Facebook Employees Flag Drug Cartels and Human Traffickers. The Company’s Response Is Weak, Documents Show.

Employees raised alarms about how the site is used in developing countries, where its user base is already huge and expanding

By Justin Scheck, Newley Purnell and Jeff Horwitz
https://www.facebook.com/justin.scheck.1
[e-mail]
https://twitter.com/newley
https://www.facebook.com/newley
[e-mail]
https://twitter.com/JeffHorwitz
[e-mail]
Sept. 16, 2021 1:24 pm ET

In January, a former cop turned Facebook Inc. investigator posted an all-staff memo on the company’s internal message board. It began “Happy 2021 to everyone!!” and then proceeded to detail a new set of what he called “learnings.” The biggest one: A Mexican drug cartel was using Facebook to recruit, train and pay hit men.

The behavior was shocking and in clear violation of Facebook’s rules. But the company didn’t stop the cartel from posting on Facebook or Instagram, the company’s photo-sharing site.

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

28. "I agree with Jesse. Very good series. This link should work for non-subscribers."

OwMyPopehat Retweeted

I agree with Jesse. Very good series. This link should work for non-subscribers. https://wsj.com/articles/facebook-drug-cartels-human-traffickers-response-is-weak-documents-11631812953?st=fga4zee1bojoz1m&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

This WSJ Facebook series definitely proves how little Zuckerberg & the company care about causing devastating harm as long as there’s profit in it. One of the most important series on an American corporation in years. https://wsj.com/articles/facebook-drug-cartels-human-traffickers-response-is-weak-documents-11631812953

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