Facebook has been hit by anti-conservative bias allegations, but a new report suggests that it may have been particularly forgiving. According to the sources from Washington Post, Facebook has limited punishment for President Donald Trump allies who repeatedly violate the rules against misinformation on the social media platform.
Facebook gets lenient
Washington Post reported that in some cases, they are to remove strikes that could have led to reduced News Feed distribution or even full-on bans. The social media platform pulled a repeat infraction claim against Donald Trump Jr. on Instagram due to their fear of a backlash from the penalties that would be imposed.
The source also stated that the other family members of President Trump had their strikes removed. A pro-Trump PAC or America First Action and other organizations that have repeatedly posted known false information also appeared to have escaped consequences.
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Facebook stated that it would label some posts that break its rules, but the Post found examples of obvious false claims from Gateway Pundit, Rush Limbaugh and other outlets that had not received the disclaimers.
Andrea Vallone, the spokeswoman for Facebook, did not challenge the report posted by Washington Post. She noted that the social media giant would not penalize accounts in rare cases, when a rating was not appropriate or warranted.
The representative stressed that many pages the Post found had been punished for spreading misinformation, but then declined to say how or what the thresholds were to avoid opportunities for the system.
If the report is accurate, the exceptions would not be surprising. Just like in Twitter and other social media platforms, Facebook is fully aware that Trump and the Republicans are currently in power and that could lead to regulation of social media and other legal action.
President Trump's order demanding a reform of the Communications Decent Act's Section 230 is considered as his retaliation against Twitter for fact-checking one of this Twitter posts, and Facebook itself was criticized by Senate Republicans for limiting a story by New York Post making allegations against Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.
Taking both sides
Despite Facebook's efforts to show that it is not biased towards any political party, this move won't help quiet the accusations that the social media giant has separate standards for different groups and people.
Critics have pointed out that Facebook is allowing misinformation to spread as a consequence and it also allows hate groups to be formed on the platform. The company should not have to fear retaliation when allegations of free speech violations have not held up in court.
This just means that the social media platform wants to please both sides of the political discourse in America and it may have ignited tensions.
Weeks leading up to the presidential elections, a lot of misinformation about both candidates and both parties have spread on Facebook and Twitter, yet the fact-checking feature was not fast enough to shut down those information that may affect a voter's view of a specific candidate.
With hours leading up to the election, people are waiting to see if Facebook will step up and make sure that it will take action on both sides.
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