It may have taken a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, but Facebook has finally decided that it’s maybe not such a great idea to allow politicians to post whatever kind of incendiary garbage that they want. According to The New York Times, the company will announce Friday that it’s revoking the special rules for political figures that exempted them from having posts removed or moderated because they were deemed to be newsworthy. That policy was introduced in September 2019, but has reportedly been reconsidered after Facebook’s decision to throw Donald Trump off its site over his posts that helped encourage the Capitol rioters earlier this year. According to the Times, the rule change will mean that politicians’ posts will no longer be assumed to be newsworthy, and their posts will have to fall in line with guidelines that prohibit harassment and hateful speech. Facebook will still exempt some posts from moderation if they’re considered particularly newsworthy, but will disclose that decision each time it’s taken.
