The platform has been under fire for years and we’ve witnessed millions of Facebook users shut down their accounts. Mark Zuckerberg and his team have been accused of all sorts of infractions, from violating privacy to manipulating American democracy, and with each new scandal, Facebook implements policies to help curtail harmful behaviors.
On Wednesday (October 13), The Verge reported that Facebook announced it planned on cracking down on “severe sexualizing content” that targeted celebrities, influencers, and notable figures. The platform updated its cyberbullying and online harassment policies, and it will be interesting to see how this is implemented in the future.
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Facebook will also pay more attention to Pages and Groups that may focus on a specific celebrity, as their policies now include removing “objectionable content that is considered mass harassment towards any individual on personal surfaces, such as direct messages in inbox or comments on personal profiles or posts.”
Public figures — whether they’re politicians, journalists, celebrities or creators — use Facebook and Instagram to engage directly with their followers. We’re always trying to strike the right balance between protecting them from abuse and allowing open dialogue about them on our apps. Our bullying and harassment policy differentiates between public figures and private individuals to enable freedom of expression and legitimate public discourse around those in the public eye.
Public figures shouldn’t be subjected to degrading or sexualized attacks. We currently remove attacks on public figures that encompass a wide range of harms.
They listed the content that will result in removal or bans including “sexualized commentary,” “sexualized drawings or images,” tagging celebrities with degrading material, “degrading content depicting individuals in the process of bodily functions,” and overall content that objectifies a public figure to the point that it’s considered abuse.
This news comes months after there were reports that Facebook was cracking down on the harassment toward Lizzo.