UPDATED 21:22 EDT / OCTOBER 13 2021

POLICY

Facebook updates its harassment policies to protect public figures better

As part of an effort to appease its growing number of critics, Facebook Inc. announced today that it will expand its policies to provide better protection of public figures.

The company said it will begin talking down “severe sexualizing content” relating to such figures, which will cover celebrities, people working in politics, and even well-known content creators. Any Pages or Groups whose purpose is to sexualize the person will be banned, as will “sexualized photoshopped images and drawings” of certain figures.

“In addition, we will remove unwanted sexualized commentary and repeated content which is sexually harassing,” Facebook said in a blog post. “Because what is ‘unwanted’ can be subjective, we’ll rely on additional context from the individual experiencing the abuse to take action.” The company said such content can “weaponize” someone’s appearance which has nothing to do with the work they do.

That also means content that even talks about a person’s physical appearance in a negative way will be taken down if it’s posted on the person’s account or the person is tagged in a post. Posting words “depicting individuals in the process of bodily functions” is now verboten too.

Perhaps more surprising is that Facebook will now offer more protection against harassment and bullying of people who didn’t exactly want to be in the spotlight. These people, who Facebook called “involuntary” public figures, might be journalists or political activists or just people who have found themselves in the public eye for, say, defending the rights of minorities.

They will now be offered more protection from constant harassment and their physical appearance will also be subject to the same strengthened policies as high-profile people. “We also recognize that becoming a public figure isn’t always a choice, and that this fame can increase the risk of bullying and harassment, particularly if the person comes from an underrepresented community,” said Facebook.

Such content that picks on famous people or activists can quickly become viral, which might be good for a social media company, but not for the individual in harm’s way. Just recently, whistleblower Frances Haugen accused Facebook of ignoring such harm to drive growth, something it seems has made the company concentrate more seriously on removing such harm.

Photo: Joshua Hoehne/Unsplash

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