Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said the social media platform will start adding labels to content that violates the site’s rules but is considered “newsworthy” after coming under pressure from an ad boycott campaign.
In a post late on Friday, the company’s CEO said this would also apply to content from politicians — following the lead of Twitter, which has added labels to some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tweets.
The platform will also start labelling posts and advertisements about voting with links to accurate information ahead of the U.S. election this year, and ban “a wider category of hateful content in ads.”
Facebook has increasingly come under fire from lawmakers, civil rights activists and even its own employees for taking a lax approach to inflammatory content, including posts from Trump.
In recent days, major companies such as Coca-Cola and Unilever joined an ad boycott campaign called Stop Hate for Profit, which was started by U.S. civil rights groups seeking tougher action on hateful content posted on Facebook.
Despite Zuckerberg’s announcement, however, more companies joined the boycott, including chocolate maker Hershey.
This article is part of POLITICO’s premium Tech policy coverage: Pro Technology. Our expert journalism and suite of policy intelligence tools allow you to seamlessly search, track and understand the developments and stakeholders shaping EU Tech policy and driving decisions impacting your industry. Email [email protected] with the code ‘TECH’ for a complimentary trial.