Facebook says they are announcing new policies to keep the platform safe not only for private users but public figures too.
The stringent policies will protect people from “mass harassment and intimidation” and will now remove “more harmful content” that attack public figures.
The company said the implementation of these policies will be extended to protect people that have been made famous involuntarily like human rights activists and journalists, too.
In a press statement Facebook outlined the plan for the policy that will ban content that degrades or sexualizes public figures, such as elected officials, celebrities, activists, and journalists. The policy also includes banning;
- Profiles, Pages, groups or events dedicated to sexualizing the public figure.
- Derogatory, sexualized photoshopped images and drawings.
- Attacks through negative physical descriptions that are tagged to, mention or posted on the public figure’s account.
- Degrading content depicting individuals in the process of bodily functions.
Facebook will also remove content in the comments section that are deemed as harassment.
In addition, we will also remove state-linked and adversarial networks of accounts, Pages and Groups that work together to harass or silence people, for example a state-sponsored organization using closed private groups to coordinate mass posting on dissident profiles.
Facebook said about the new policy.
In a press release, Facebook said public figures should not be subjected to harassment like any other person in the world using the platform.
Facebook has come under fire following allegations that its family of applications are dangerous for its users, with a whistleblower claiming that Facebook knows its products harm children, stoke division and weaken democracies.
Hopefully this move today is not to sweep such allegations under the carpet, but to better improve Facebook’s underlying issues that have been plaguing users.
READ MORE: Seeing So Much Hostility On Facebook? There’s A Reason Why.
