Facebook posts on killing Trump banned but threats against others left alone, leak reveals

Facebook posts about killing Donald Trump are reportedly banned, while other violent threats are not
Reuters

Facebook posts about killing Donald Trump are banned but violent threats against other people are often allowed to remain untouched, an investigation based on leaked guidelines has claimed.

A dossier apparently containing dozens of training manuals and internal documents obtained by the Guardian newspaper claims to offer an insight into how content posted by Facebook's users is moderated.

It shows "credible violence" such as posting the phrase "someone shoot Trump" must be removed by the staff because he is a head of state.

However, generic posts stating someone should die are permitted as they are not regarded as credible threats, the newspaper claims.

Staff are told videos of abortions are allowed to remain on Facebook as long as they do not contain nudity, while footage of violent deaths does not have to be deleted because they can help create awareness of issues such as mental illness, the Guardian said.

Donald Trump 100 Days as President - In pictures

1/66

All "handmade" art showing nudity and sexual activity is allowed but digitally made art showing sexual activity is not, the newspaper claimed.

Facebook will also allow people to livestream attempts to self-harm because it "doesn't want to censor or punish people in distress", it added.

The leak is likely to reignite the debate between freedom of expression, safety and censorship on the internet.

Last week Theresa May outlined plans for widespread reform of cyberspace.

She said the internet had brought "a wealth of opportunity, but also significant new risks which have evolved faster than society's response to them".

Outlining plans under a future Tory government, she said: "We want social media companies to do more to help redress the balance and will take action to make sure they do."

Under the plans, social media firms will have to take action to stop search terms directing users to inappropriate sites.

Monika Bickert, head of global policy management at Facebook, said: "Keeping people on Facebook safe is the most important thing we do.

"(Founder) Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that over the next year, we'll be adding 3,000 people to our community operations team around the world - on top of the 4,500 we have today - to review the millions of reports we get every week, and improve the process for doing it quickly.

"In addition to investing in more people, we're also building better tools to keep our community safe.

"We're going to make it simpler to report problems to us, faster for our reviewers to determine which posts violate our standards and easier for them to contact law enforcement if someone needs help."

Additional reporting by Press Association

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in