Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, has announced the social media company will begin reducing the amount of political content it allows on its platform.
While they have not determined the exact way they will do this, the news feed will be where users notice the biggest difference. However, Zuckerberg says they are still going to enable people to engage in political groups and discussions if they want to.
“One of the top pieces of feedback that we’re hearing from our community right now is that people don’t want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services,” Zuckerberg said during Facebook’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 earnings conference call
This is a continuation of work they have already been doing to control access of those who violate Facebook’s rules. The company announced on January 11 that they stopped recommending civic and political groups in the U.S. ahead of the elections, although an investigation by The Markup claims this is false.
This comes after the company faced major criticism from politicians for denying their role in giving rioters a platform after insurrectionists stormed the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. on January 6.
In an open letter to Zuckerberg, US senator Ed Markey called many Facebook groups “breeding grounds for hate, echo-chambers of misinformation, and venues for coordination of violence, including explicit planning for the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.”