The British Guardian analyzes the secret rules and manuals of Facebook, which are at the disposal of the newspaper, according to which it is determined what 2 billion users can and can not publish on their pages. These rules, the newspaper believes, will provoke the widest global debate about the role and ethics of the giant social network, reports the BBC..
Over 100 internal documents give unprecedented access to the rules according to which Facebook moderates such sensitive topics as violence, inciting hatred, terrorism, pornography and self-harm.
There are even separate rules concerning contractual matches and cannibalism.
From the documents it follows that the moderators of Facebook are overloaded with work, often to take a decision from them "no more than 10 seconds".
"Facebook" is no longer able to control its content. He grew too fast to excessively large volumes, "one of the sources within the corporation.
Many moderators are dissatisfied with the inconsistency and strange nature of some rules. Especially complex and confusing are the rules concerning sexual content.
According to one of the documents, Facebook receives 6.5 million messages on false accounts every week, the so-called FNRP (fake, not real person), that is, fake accounts, for which there is no real person.
Thousands of slides and illustrations of rules and guidelines can, on the one hand, cause criticism that the current Facebook, as the world's largest publisher, should pay more attention to the removal of violent, harmful and dangerous content.
On the other hand, these same rules can become the basis for criticizing Facebook from the point of view of freedom of speech because it has become, in fact, the world's largest censor.
Both sides, the newspaper believes, are likely to agree that Facebook needs more transparency.
The Guardian gives some examples of the rules she has read. So, in particular, to say: "Somebody, shoot Trump!" Is impossible, because as the head of state he is in a specially protected category. At the same time, say: "To curtail the bitch's neck, all the force must be applied to the central part of the throat" or "Fuck and die!" Is entirely acceptable, since such statements are not considered a real threat.
Videos of scenes of violent death are considered a violation, but at the same time, not all of them must necessarily be deleted, as they can raise people's awareness of important issues such as mental disorders.
Some scenes of unrelated physical violence - including among children - are not subject to removal if they do not have an element of sadism and praise.
"Hand-made" images of nudity and sexual activities are allowed, while digitally produced scenes of sexual acts are not. Video images of abortions are permissible if they are not naked.
The owner of an account with more than 100,000 subscribers is recognized as a "public figure" and is deprived of the full protection that is granted to individuals.
Emotionally colored threats such as "I'll kill you!" Are allowed until "there are serious grounds to assume that this threat is real and can proceed to direct action".
Monica Bickert, head of global politics at Facebook, admits that it is very difficult to achieve unified rules for 2 billion users around the world.
"No matter how carefully you draw dividing lines, there will always be" gray zones, "she says.. - In particular, in terms of satire and humor.
Depending on the context, the same statement may be acceptable or not ".
More and more voices are heard calling for Facebook to apply the same rules that apply to paper mass media and publishing houses.
At the same time, Bickert says that Facebook is a new type of company. "This is not a traditional technology company or traditional media. We create technology and feel responsible for the way it is used. We do not write the news that people read on our platform ".