San Francisco (AFP)

Hate advertising? Better regulated. Problematic messages? Better reported. Seemingly shy, these new measures signal that Facebook had no other choice but to give in to pressure for more stringent moderation of content.

Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of the global social network, has been defending for months his approach a priori more lax than Twitter or YouTube, especially vis-à-vis the speeches of political figures, in the name of freedom of expression.

But on Friday he detailed the hardening of his position himself.

The platform will now remove ads that claim that people of certain origins, ethnicities, nationalities, gender or sexual orientation pose a threat to the safety or health of others.

The decision comes as Unilever, the food and cosmetics giant, has just announced that it will stop advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the United States, at least until the end of the year. .

This weighty name is added to other advertisers - Verizon (telecoms), Honda, Ben & Jerry's (glacier belonging to Unilever), Patagonia, North Face and REI (sporting goods) - who are participating in a boycott campaign from Facebook.

It was launched by American civil society organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which accuse the platform of tolerating groups that incite to hatred, racism or violence.

Comedian and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, a network critic, called on Friday companies "spending more dollars on Facebook ads" to join the movement. He cites in particular Procter & Gamble, Walmart, Microsoft, Amazon, the New York Times ...

- Warnings -

The second measure taken by the cornered boss directly concerns the incident which set fire to the powder in late May.

Unlike Twitter, Facebook had refused to intervene on controversial messages from Donald Trump, one on postal voting (which he considered electoral fraud) and another on the demonstrations and riots that followed George's death. Floyd, an African American suffocated by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

Twitter, considering that there was incitement to hatred, had masked these last words of the American president, and reduced their potential circulation, while leaving them available for consultation.

Facebook is now moving away from its binary withdrawal or laissez-faire policy, which has been heavily criticized, including internally.

The platform will soon be able to add warnings to problematic publications, but left online in the name of their "interest in being known to the public".

"Users will be able to share this content to condemn them (...) but we will warn them that the publications in question potentially violate our rules," said Mark Zuckerberg.

Too vague a promise, according to some experts.

"Will Facebook allow an independent verification of what content is pinned and the effects on distribution?", Asked Michelle Amazeen, professor of political communication at Boston University.

- 2016, 2020 -

The pressure for better regulation of platforms has been growing since 2018, the year of the revelation of the 2016 scandals, when major elections were targeted by powerful campaigns to manipulate public opinion via social networks.

Today, it is the approach of the American presidential election in November that crystallizes the tensions.

"Brands have a duty to help build a reliable and secure digital ecosystem (...). Much remains to be done, especially in terms of division and hate speech during this polarized electoral period in the United States" , explained Unilever (Dove, Knorr ...) to justify his decision.

The election "already looked hot, and that was before I faced the additional complexities of the pandemic and protests for racial justice across the country," said Mark Zuckerberg in the preamble.

The founder of the Californian group has committed that his teams will be mobilized to counter any attempt at maneuvers aimed at dissuading certain populations from voting.

The election-related content may be accompanied by links to the latest information from the authorities, to ensure that voters are properly informed, especially about the sanitary measures in place.

"And we will ban publications that incorrectly claim that the immigration police (ICE) verify identity documents at polling stations," said Zuckerberg.

© 2020 AFP