Facebook to start labeling content that it finds newsworthy but might violate its rules

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Friday that the social network would start labeling content it finds newsworthy but might violate its rules and will bar a wider category of hateful content in ads, a move that comes as major brands are pulling ads from the social network in protest. 

The labeling doesn’t apply to content that suppresses voting or incites violence, which Facebook said it will remove even if it comes from politicians. The company’s rival Twitter has been adding a notice to President Donald Trump’s tweets that run afoul of its rules about glorifying violence. 

Facebook will also bar ads in which claims that people from a certain race and ethnicity are threat to to the physical safety, health or survival of anyone else. It’s also prohibiting ads that express contempt, dismissal or disgust at immigrants and refugees or suggest that they are somehow inferior.

“We want to do more here to prohibit the kind of divisive and inflammatory rhetoric that has been used to sow discord,” Zuckerberg said in an internal townhall that he live streamed on Facebook. 

Facebook has been under pressure to do more to combat misinformation and hate speech. The Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Colors of Change, Free Press and Common Sense are calling on businesses to stop buying ads on Facebook for the month of July. Doing so, the groups said, will put pressure on Facebook to use its $70 billion in annual advertising revenue to support people who are targets of racism and hate and to increase safety for private groups on the site.Consumer goods giant Unilever, telecommunications company Verizon, ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s and outdoor clothing brand The North Face are some of the major brands who have joined the #StopHateforProfit campaign. 

Despite efforts to combat hate speech, civil rights advocates say that Facebook has allowed content that could incite violence against protesters who are fighting for racial justice in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks.

The ADL says nearly 100 brands have joined the boycott. The groups are asking Facebook to make several changes, including creating a separate moderation pipeline for hate speech, allowing certain people who’ve been targeted with harassment or hate to talk to a live person at Facebook, and telling advertisers how often their content was shown next to posts that Facebook removed for misinformation or hate speech.