Facebook will be starting to allow more explicit posts on their platforms if they are “newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest,” the company said today, following a series of controversies over deleted content. “Our intent is to allow more images and stories without posing safety risks or showing graphic images to minors and others who do not want to see them,” said Joel Kaplan, VP of global public policy, and Justin Osofsky, VP of global operations and media partnerships, in a blog post.
Facebook has been coming under increasing pressure to relax its community standards to allow for posts that include violence or nudity in some contexts. Recently, the company had apologized after it had removed a video from the Swedish Cancer Society that promoted breast cancer awareness with simple animations of the female body. Earlier Facebook had come under fire after it removed an iconic photo from the Vietnam War.
The company has now offered minor details about how it plans to allow more sensitive content to be posted. “We will work with our community and partners to explore exactly how to do this, both through new tools and approaches to enforcement,” Kaplan and Osofsky said.
They stated that standards vary from culture to culture, and that decisions around newsworthiness or public interest are often highly subjective. “Respecting local norms and upholding global practices often come into conflict,” they said. “And people often disagree about what standards should be in place to ensure a community that is both safe and open to expression.”
