Facebook Plans to Reduce Censorship, Show More Offensive but Newsworthy Content

By Abdul Muqeet, | October 23, 2016

Facebook is relaxing its censorship rules for newsworthy content.

Facebook is relaxing its censorship rules for newsworthy content.

Following a series of controversies over deleted content, Facebook will start allowing more explicit posts on its platform if they are "newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest," the company said in a statement.

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Joel Kaplan, Facebook's vice president of global public policy, and Justin Osofsky, vice president of global operations and media partnerships at Facebook, said in a blog post ,"Our intent is to allow more images and stories without posing safety risks or showing graphic images to minors and others who do not want to see them."

After receiving feedback from users and partners over "recent weeks," the social networking company announced it would no longer maintain strict censorship rules. Facebook is moving forward with an updated policy.

At the moment, the company has offered very few details about how it plans to allow more sensitive content to be posted and how its filter system would work.

"We will work with our community and partners to explore exactly how to do this, both through new tools and approaches to enforcement," Kaplan and Osofsky said in the blog post.

They pointed out that standards vary from culture to culture, and that assessment around newsworthiness or public interest can most of the time be considered vastly subjective.

"Respecting local norms and upholding global practices often come into conflict," the statement added. "And people often disagree about what standards should be in place to ensure a community that is both safe and open to expression."

This move comes as Facebook has come under severe criticism for removing an animated video from the Swedish Cancer Society that promoted breast cancer awareness with cartoon breasts. Before this, a few months ago Facebook censored the iconic Pulitzer Prize winning "Napalm Girl" picture.

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