Some of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's Facebook posts sparked a heated debate among employees over whether his comments constitute hate speech and violate the site's terms of use, according to a report published Friday by The Wall Street Journal.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation, the newspaper reported that complaints centered around "certain posts about banning Muslims from entering the U.S." The debate was officially settled in December, when Facebook CEO determined that censoring Trump would be "inappropriate."
"That decision has prompted employees across the company to complain on Facebook's internal messaging service and in person to Mr. Zuckerberg and other managers that it was bending the site's rules for Mr. Trump, and some employees who work in a group charged with reviewing content on Facebook threatened to quit," according to The Wall Street Journal.
The social network announced in a news release Friday that it would be slackening some of its community standards in order to allow people to post and share newsworthy but controversial subjects.
"In the weeks ahead, we're going to begin allowing more items that people find newsworthy, significant or important to the public interest – even if they might otherwise violate our standards," the statement said. "We will work with our community and partners to explore exactly how to do this through new tools and approaches to enforcement."
The company said it is focused on allowing users to share more controversial stories while still protecting minors and others from seeing graphic, inappropriate content. Facebook said it would do so with input from experts, law enforcement officials and others.
According to a study published in May 2016 by the Pew Research Center, about 62 percent of adults in America get their news from social media. Facebook is widely regarded as the most popular site. About 44 percent of Americans get their news from the social media site, according to Pew.
About the Author
