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Leaked documents 'show Facebook's secret censorship rules'

The Guardian has published documents which claim to reveal what posts are and aren’t allowed on Facebook.

REPORTERS IN THE UK say they’ve gained access to Facebook’s rules that decide what is and isn’t allowed on the social media site.

Yesterday, the Guardian published slides and documents allegedly circulated to Facebook staff members which give guidance on what posts are allowed on the site.

The documents also give the reasons as to why employees should or shouldn’t delete posts that contain nudity, bullying, violence, hatred, terrorism, racism or mental health issues.

Some of the comments that aren’t permitted include:

  • “Someone shoot Trump” (because he’s a head of state)
  • “#Stab and become the fear of the Zionist”

While comments that are permitted include:

  • “Kick a person with red hair”
  • “Let’s beat up fat kids”
  • “Little girl needs to keep to herself before daddy breaks her face” (because it’s considered ‘not credible’)

According to the Guardian:

  • Imagery of animal abuse can be shared on the site in general
  • Facebook will allow users to livestream attempts to self-harm because it “doesn’t want to censor or punish people in distress who are attempting suicide”
  • Facebook had to assess over 50,000 potential cases of revenge porn and ‘sextortion’ on the site in January.

The social media giant has previously been criticised for its censorship of posts, in particular when it removed an iconic shot of a naked girl escaping a napalm bombing during the Vietnam War.

That incident among others raised questions about how the site determines what posts are allowed, but have up until now remained secret.

Monika Bickert, ‎Facebook’s head of global policy management, told the Guardian that Facebook had over two billion users and that it was difficult to decide what to allow.

“We have a really diverse global community and people are going to have very different ideas about what is ok to share. No matter where you draw the line there are always going to be some grey areas. For instance, the line between satire and humour and inappropriate content is sometimes very grey. It is very difficult to decide whether some things belong on the site or not,” she said.

But she maintained that Facebook did have a responsibility to keep their users safe: “It’s absolutely our responsibility to keep on top of it. It’s a company commitment.”

Last October, Facebook said that they would allow more graphic newsworthy posts to be shared on the social network if they were of ‘public interest’.

“We’re going to begin allowing more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to public interest – even if they might otherwise violate our standards,” Facebook vice presidents Joel Kaplan and Justin Osofsky said.

Read: Facebook apologises for another censorship slip, as it promises more graphic news

Read: Facebook does u-turn on censoring ‘napalm girl’ photo

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27 Comments
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    Mute Matt Connolly
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    Jan 24th 2016, 3:27 PM

    ….is this another incident they will “learn” from?

    Accountability HAS to be an election issue.

    171
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    Mute Brendan Hughes
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    Jan 24th 2016, 6:57 PM

    No no. It’s all ok now. They said sorry. So leave them alone and let them get on with ignoring other kids in their care.

    55
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    Mute Stephen murphy
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    Jan 24th 2016, 8:32 PM

    No such thing, Accountability is a dirty word.

    29
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    Mute Brendan
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    Jan 24th 2016, 9:34 PM

    As someone who works in the Hse I can tell first hand that complaints upon staff from other staff members is something no one wants to deal with, there are people with many complaints against them with many knowing and seeing first hand they are true yet after the big Hse investigation the people still remain in their post in the exact same roll, I actually had myself transferred to another place to get away from the lack of management and pussy footing around dealing with staff properly best move I ever made

    38
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    Mute Brian Ward
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    Jan 24th 2016, 3:52 PM

    If the HSE is ever to be reformed then the only way to do it is to appoint an independent professional who is assessed and signed off on by ALL parties. This professional is then given the task of reforming the management and running the HSE. They are given a set timeframe and targets. They are then allowed to cull the dead wastage that pervades the HSE on the administration side and use the savings to improve the healthcare side of things. They will have the advantage of not worrying about getting re-elected as their role is to reach their targets and if that means making unpopular decisions then so be it. If they are appointed by an all party committee then none of the usual blame games can erupt as all parties will have made the decision to appoint the person.

    The HSE employs 100,000 people and I would bet that you could get rid of 10% of them tomorrow morning and nothing would be disrupted, that’s how useless their roles are.

    98
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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Jan 24th 2016, 5:31 PM

    @Brian Ward

    You can blame the Labour party for the lack of radical reform in the Irish health service.

    All of the health service unions are responsible for the predicament of the health service, not just the ones that represent administrators. The following article was written by GP Dr Brendan O’Shea.

    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/nurses-must-allow-trolleys-on-wards-34351707.html

    “I believe the nurses are wrong in trying to frustrate it and there is a sense they are playing silly industrial relations games.

    It should be part of any escalation procedures to alleviate the pressure when trolley traffic reaches a certain crisis.

    Any attempts to obstruct it are akin to terrorists hiding themselves among unfortunate hostages.

    Just like in bus disputes where passengers end up being kicked around, it is now the turn of the patient.

    Doctors’ unions are also guilty of this when the occasion arises.”

    23
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    Mute littleone
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    Jan 24th 2016, 3:33 PM

    HSE never apologise and never learn. The incompetence and mismanagement are a disgrace. The government is a disgrace. From personal experience in 2007 in regards to portlaoise.

    92
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    Mute mick1
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    Jan 24th 2016, 3:27 PM

    The wasters at the hse strike again . I wonder do any of these people ly awake at night worrying about the way people are left on trolleys and treated like animals . I think not !!!!!

    90
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    Mute William Clay
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    Jan 24th 2016, 3:42 PM

    Senior management have had 30% salary increases since 2012, I’d say that’s all they think about, period.

    97
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    Mute Martin Byrne
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    Jan 24th 2016, 4:31 PM

    I know many foster parents who are living saints. The social workers they were assigned were dreadful in general. I mean gobsmackingly awful to the level of being dangerous. That’s why the very few bad foster homes can exist.

    76
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    Mute Mary Scanlon
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    Jan 24th 2016, 4:33 PM

    How many more similar cases are out there? It truly is shameful. We do have very good people e.g. the social worker and the whistleblower, trying to protect and stand up for such vulnerable people. Let us not lose sight of that.

    64
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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Jan 24th 2016, 5:35 PM

    @Mary Scanlon

    I couldn’t agree more. If HSE employees were aware that vulnerable people were at risk and failed to take appropriate action then I hope that they will be crucified.

    40
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    Mute john mccarthy
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    Jan 24th 2016, 5:07 PM

    The public disservice.

    Who gets sacked ? Nobody.

    Carry on as normal.

    43
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    Mute D H
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    Jan 24th 2016, 5:45 PM

    Its the irish way….we are too accepting of incompetence from our politicians to our civil servants….never any accountability

    31
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    Mute Michael Lynch
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    Jan 24th 2016, 7:14 PM

    Dead right D H. Buck stops nowhere in the Land of Saints and Scholars.

    13
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    Mute Kerry Wynne
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    Jan 24th 2016, 3:54 PM

    Yet another shameful indictment of the so called ‘establishment in this country. This news predates the HSE so there are many Health Boards, Ministers for Health and others responsible for ignoring what was going. on. The first report was made in 1995 which predates the HSE by 10 years. They are all equally responsible but of course in this country very few have to take responsibility for their actions or are held accountable.

    In any other jurisdiction’ heads would roll’ with resignations, removal from posts etc. Apologies are useless and worthless as can be seen by the same ‘mistakes’ being made over and over again. Time for those responsible to be made face the consequences.

    In recent times we have had politician after politician tell us how much they care for those who suffer abuse. Yet again their mealy mouthed words are shown up to be hypocritical. Time for them too to walk the walk.

    42
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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Jan 24th 2016, 5:46 PM

    Justine McCarthy wrote about this case for this week’s edition of The Sunday Times.

    According to her, the DPP decided not to press charges in relation to five garda files dealing with alleged negligence and abuse in the home and one of the foster parents allegedly committed sexual assault and rape with the use of instruments (the foster father, I assume) is deceased.

    I commend the social worker who blew the whistle.

    Sadly, some members of staff of the health boards didn’t care about children who were neglected and sexually abused by one or both of their parents, i.e. the Kilkenny and Roscommon incest and McColgan family cases.

    In the Roscommon incest case, the members of health board staff who were involved in that case could have appealed against the injunction that the mother had obtained (the evidence of neglect was as clear as a summer’s day) but they didn’t bother.

    34
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    Mute Fiona deFreyne
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    Jan 24th 2016, 6:12 PM

    In the Roscommon case, an ultra right wing Catholic group funded an expensive legal challenge and obrptiained an injunction. The local health Board did not have the legal budget to appeal.

    It’s dangerous when extremely well funded religious extremists can use lawyers to frustrate necessary interventions in very serious rape and incest cases. I’m pleased to say that a book is being written about this dreadful scandal, exposing the details but not the identities. The book includes details of the financial funding. Keep the religious extremists out of the social servuces area. Ideology causes terrible problems.

    37
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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Jan 24th 2016, 7:37 PM

    @Fiona deFreyne

    The health board could have allocated money to its legal budget to appeal on the grounds of what was then Article 42.5 of the Constitution, which permitted the removal of children from parents if the parents fail in their duty. Given that the health board was supposed to protect the vulnerable, taking legal action to protect the vulnerable should have been a priority.

    The health board could have informed the Gardaí of the neglect. Then the Gardaí could have arrested the parents for child neglect and that would have provided grounds for taking the children into care. Child neglect is a criminal offence, you know.

    Stop making excuses for health board members of staff who didn’t do their jobs properly.

    19
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