Facebook wants less politics on its platform
Facebook has decided to move away from politics and no longer highlight political groups on its social network.
DENIS CHARLET AFP / File
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook said Wednesday, January 27 that the platform would no longer recommend militant or political groups to its users.
This measure had already been taken in the United States this fall to curb the tensions linked to the presidential election.
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The social network, which played a major role in the Arab Spring ten years ago, now wants to reinvent its image.
Facebook wants to move away from the controversies and political scandals that punctuate its daily life since
the election of Donald Trump
and
Brexit in 2016
.
The site was also implicated in the persecutions of the
Rohingya minority in Burma
.
"
We have stopped recommending militant or political groups in the United States as the election approaches, and we now intend to extend this rule to the whole world,
" said
Mark Zuckerberg
during the presentation of the results. quarterly reports from the social media giant.
Its objective is to "
calm things down and discourage divisive conversations
".
In the statement released earlier, he said he was "
excited
" to design, in 2021, "
ways to create economic opportunities, build communities and help people just have fun
."
I just shared our community update and quarterly results.
There are four big themes I'm focused on for the year ahead: ...
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday January 27, 2021
Profit on the rise but moderation to the penalty
The Californian group achieved nearly $ 86 billion in sales for the year, and generated more than 29 billion in profit, up 58%, despite the pandemic, a boycott of brands this summer and significant tensions with civil society, elected officials and authorities.
Facebook has faced this by stepping up measures to better moderate content and curb disinformation, without succeeding in satisfying many anti-racist organizations or the defense of rights and freedoms in general.
“
In September, we announced that we had pulled over a million bands in one year,
” Zuckerberg recalled.
"
But there are also many groups that we don't want to encourage people to join even if they don't break our rules
."
Reduce the visibility of political content
The founder of the platform giant added that his teams were also looking for ways to reduce the visibility of political content on the central user thread.
"
Of course, it will always be possible to participate in discussions and political groups, for those who wish,
" said the billionaire.
“
One of the main feedback from our community at the moment is that people don't want politics and struggles to take precedence over the rest when they use our services,
” he said.
(
with AFP
)
►Also listen: International guest - Facebook: "
The digital giants are in the sights of the American public authorities
"
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