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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Facebook's Zuckerberg to review content policies after backlash

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Facebook's Zuckerberg to review content policies after backlash
Facebook's Zuckerberg to review content policies after backlash

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday said he would consider changes to the policy that led the company to leave up controversial posts by President Donald Trump during recent demonstrations protesting the death of an unarmed black man while in police custody, a partial concession to critics.

Conway G.

Gittens has the story.

BROADCAST AND DIGITAL RESTRICTIONS~** Broadcasters: NONE Digital: *NONE*~ Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to be softening his stance when it comes to changing the social media giant's policies that allowed controversial posts to remain on the platform made by President Trump, which some critics said fueled the fans of racial tensions during a time of great civil unrest.

Without offering any specifics, Zuckerberg in a Facebook post on Friday, made a partial concession.

Writing: "We're going to review our policies allowing discussion and threats of state use of force to see if there are any amendments we should adopt," adding, "We're going to review potential options for handling violating or partially-violating content aside from the binary leave-it-up or take-it-down decisions." Zuckerberg has been feeling the heat from critics and backlash from employees after he defended a decision to leave up a Facebook post from Trump containing the message "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Many saw the post as a threat and a throwback to state-sanctioned violence against protesters during the civil rights era.

The pressure only intensified as other social media companies like Twitter and Snapchat took steps this week to rein in Trump posts that were false, misleading or appeared to incite violence against protestors.

Demonstrators have been flooding the streets for two weeks, often breaking city and state curfews to protest violent policing after video footage captured a black man, George Floyd, dying after a now former police officer held his knee against Floyd's neck for nearly 9 minutes.

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