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Facebook has announced that it will not check facts pertaining to any political statements prior to the US election 2020. Even if a statement posted on the site is full of false information, Facebook will not take that down.
This decision by Facebook is possibly taken because of the early crackdown of congress and US president on Mark Zuckerberg, putting allegations on him of being biased towards a particular political group.
The social networking giant has signed an agreement with AFP and other media outlets to verify articles and posts with doubtful facts. The third-party fact-checker would help Facebook to avoid finger-pointing. It is also a good way to keep the censorship thorough by having experts in charge of the board. This reduces the time it takes to check facts and also backs up Facebook against any further allegations.
Facebook vice president of global affairs and communications, Nick Clegg said. “We don’t believe […] that it’s an appropriate role for us to referee political debates and prevent a politician’s speech from reaching its audience and being subject to public debate and scrutiny,”
“This means that we will not send organic content or ads from politicians to our third-party fact-checking partners for review,”
Facebook has been under pressure since the 2016 elections when they were indicted with the term, “Russian agents”. Following this, there were revelations of a wide-ranging misinformation campaign on their social media platforms, directed by Russian operatives.
Nick Clegg was the British Deputy Prime Minister from 2010 to 2015. In October 2018, Facebook announced that he would be Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications for them. He was brought on board by Facebook to fight against the scandal of Russian campaign during the elections of 2016.
They made it seem like it was Clegg’s idea that Facebook should get rid of such allegations. Earlier Facebook had also announced the finalization of its charter for “Independent Oversight Board”. Which will have authority over any post, even more, that the CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. They can override any of his decisions. This news was released on 17th of this month through a charter.
