In the category of âthe rules donât apply to your betters,â (alternatively, âwe canât kick off Nazis because they sound too much like Republicansâ) comes a rules clarification at Facebook.
Facebook confirms its âstandardsâ donât apply to politicians (Goes to Ars Technica, more at the link):
Politicians are officially exempt from both hate speech rules and fact checking.
Facebook this week finally put into writing what usersâespecially politically powerful usersâhave known for years: its community âstandardsâ do not, in fact, apply across the whole community. Speech from politicians is officially exempt from the platformâs fact checking and decency standards, the company has clarified, with a few exceptions.
Facebook communications VP Nick Clegg, himself a former member of the UK Parliament, outlined the policy in a speech and company blog post Tuesday.
Facebook has had a ânewsworthiness exemptionâ to its content guidelines since 2016. That policy was formalized in late October of that year amid a contentious and chaotic US political season and three weeks before the presidential election that would land Donald Trump the White House.