Facebook is ready to remove any post by President Trump that violates the platform’s “standards,” according to COO Sheryl Sandberg. The company has been facing immense pressure from the media and from Democrats to implement stricter “hate speech” and “misinformation” policies and Facebook has been willing to comply.
Sandberg confirmed Facebook’s position in an interview on Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC this week. Mitchell pressured Sandberg on how the company would handle Trump’s posts in the months leading to the November polls.
“When the president violates our hate speech standards or gives false information about voter suppression or coronavirus, it comes down,” Sandberg answered. “…This is a big task for us, and we are as ready as we think we could possibly be for it.”
She explained that the Voting Information Center the company launched last week would provide users with correct information related to the election.
The company was highly criticized by Democrats and by the media for failing to censor President Trump in May and even employees were not happy with the move, with some threatening to resign if Facebook didn’t censor Trump. That was followed by the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign that urged advertisers to boycott Facebook to force it to revisit its misinformation and hate speech policies.
Now, the company seems to be buckling to the calls for the moderation of Trump’s posts. Just this month, Facebook removed Trump’s video where he pushed for the reopening of schools. Facebook claimed the video contained false information and Sandberg’s statements appear to suggest Facebook is closely watching and waiting to act on the President’s statements when the opportunity arises.
