'Grown too big, too quickly': Facebook's guidelines on what you can and can't post revealed
Facebook’s secret rules for what its users can post online can be revealed for the first time, according to The Guardian.
The newspaper claims it has seen more than 100 documents giving insight into how the social media site moderates issues such as violence, hate speech, terrorism, pornography, self-harm, match-fixing and cannibalism.
According to one leaked document, threats against US President Donald Trump should be deleted as he is a head of state and in a protected category.
But general threats, which don’t identify individuals, are seen as permissible.
As long as there is no nudity, videos of abortions are allowed while videos of self-harm, which are reportedly on the rise, are also allowed because Facebook “doesn’t want to censor or punish people in distress”.
The leaked policies also state videos of violent deaths can be marked as disturbing but not necessarily deleted to create awareness for “self-harm afflictions and mental illness or war crimes and other important issues”.
It’s further stated in Facebook's policies on animal abuse that images and videos documenting violence toward animals are granted because it creates awareness, the documents reason.
The site’s polices on a wide-ranging number of issues are said to be “overwhelming” its moderators with one source telling The Guardian the site has “grown too big, too quickly” and it “cannot keep control of its content”.
Monitors are said to be given only 10 seconds to assess user content before making a decision.
Facebook had no specific comment on the report but said safety was its overriding concern.
"Keeping people on Facebook safe is the most important thing we do. We work hard to make Facebook as safe as possible while enabling free speech," Facebook's Head of Global Policy Management Monica Bickert said in a statement.
"This requires a lot of thought into detailed and often difficult questions, and getting it right is something we take very seriously."
Facebook confirmed that it was using software to intercept graphic content before it went on the website, but it was still in its early stages.
- With Reuters
