Washington (AFP)

Facebook tackles the issue of contentious content by announcing the same day the imminent establishment of its "Supreme Court" and the possibility for users to erase the data collected from external websites to target its advertisements.

Facebook, which has nearly two billion users worldwide, is regularly criticized for its data management.

The group wants, with these two measures announced Tuesday, to restore its image, in the midst of the presidential campaign in the United States.

"One of our main goals for the next decade is to build stronger privacy protections for everyone," said Mark Zuckerberg.

"In the coming weeks we will encourage nearly two billion people around the world to review their privacy settings," he said.

The world's leading social network has announced that users could view and delete data concerning them, collected by Facebook from external websites and applications, with one click.

Internet research, online shopping ... All this data is used by Facebook to target advertisements, and thus attract a much larger number of advertisers.

This tool, dubbed "Off-Facebook Activity", offers "a new level of transparency and control" for the social network, said its CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a message published on his blog.

"Other companies send us activity information on their sites and we use it to show you relevant advertising. You can now see a summary of that information and delete it if you wish," said Mark Zuckerberg.

- Political advertisements -

Facebook is looking to restore its image after a series of scandals over its management of personal data, including that of Cambridge Analytica.

This British company had used the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users without their knowledge to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, in favor of Donald Trump.

The second measure announced Tuesday by Facebook concerns its "Supreme Court", which will have the final say in disputes concerning the removal of problematic content, and should be operational in the coming months.

To lead this monitoring committee, the California social network recruited a British human rights activist, Thomas Hughes, who previously led the organization defending freedoms Article 19.

The idea of ​​a supervisory board, a sort of "Supreme Court" made up of independent personalities, was raised by Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg in April 2018, and was initially to be set up in late 2019.

The social network claims to want to prevent the publication and sharing of articles and images considered inappropriate according to its own charter, while being careful to respect freedom of expression.

Political advertisements, even false ones, will thus not be censored, which has earned Facebook a new round of convictions.

"In a democracy I think it is up to people to decide what is credible, not to tech companies," said Mark Zuckerberg in October, although this principle must include some exceptions, such as when inciting to violence.

For him, political advertisements are useful for small candidates, local candidates, challengers or even certain groups that would otherwise be ignored by the media.

© 2020 AFP