Can celebrities bypass Facebook’s rules?

Hannover. There are rules and for Facebook users Terms of Use. But apparently not all users are treated equally – whoever has the status of “well-known personality”, different rules apply, reports a US newspaper. They fall into a program called XCheck – even without their knowledge. That reports the “Wall Street Journal“. Selected celebrities, politicians and journalists could therefore share content on Facebook without the US company applying its usual moderation and conditions of use processes.

That means: If celebrities post content that violates the terms of use, it will remain visible online, according to the report, until better trained Facebook employees or moderators have checked the posts. The procedure is intended as an additional quality control so that accounts are not blocked too quickly, for example. But the program is said to have protected 5.8 million people in 2020. According to the “WSJ”, only 10 percent of the contributions were actually checked. The accusation: The Facebook terms of use for XCheck assigned profiles therefore do not actually apply.

The “Wall Street Journal” cites a contribution by professional footballer Neymar as an example of such a case. In 2019, Neymar shared nude photos of a woman on Facebook who accused him of rape. XCheck is said to have prevented the content from being taken offline for more than a day, and Neymar was allowed to keep his account. Before Facebook deleted the nude photos, the content was viewed more than 50 million times, the newspaper said. Usually such content is deleted immediately.

Facebook wants to improve the program

Well-known Facebook employees commented on the report on Twitter. Facebook’s “head of integrity”, Guy Rosen, wrote that the moderation of content was “imperfect”. An “additional control for sensitive situations, so that we do not make mistakes, is logical and does not mean an exemption from rules,” says Rosen.

Facebook manager too Andy Stone, who is responsible for PR, denies that XCheck is a “secret” and points to it post a blog in 2018. In it, Facebook stated that it was using a “cross-checking system” to offer a “second level of checking” for high profile accounts. “Ultimately, at the heart of this story is Facebook’s own analysis that we need to improve the program,” said Stone.

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