As Advertisers Revolt, Facebook Commits To Flagging 'Newsworthy' Political Speech That Violates Policy

As advertisers pull away from Facebook to protest the social networking giant's hands-off approach to misinformation and hate speech, the company is instituting a number of stronger policies to woo them back. From a report: In a livestreamed segment of the company's weekly all-hands meeting, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recapped some of the steps Facebook is already taking, and announced new measures to fight voter suppression and misinformation -- although they amount to things that other social media platforms like Twitter have already enacted and enforced in more aggressive ways.

At the heart of the policy changes is an admission that the company will continue to allow politicians and public figures to disseminate hate speech that does, in fact, violate the Facebook's own guidelines -- but it will add a label to denote they're remaining on the platform because of their "newsworthy" nature. It's a watered down version of the more muscular stance that Twitter has taken to limit the ability of its network to amplify hate speech or statements that incite violence. [...] Zuckerberg's remarks came days of advertisers -- most recently Unilever and Verizon -- announced that they're going to pull their money from Facebook as part the #StopHateforProfit campaign organized by civil rights groups.

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