Facebook clarifies community standards amid takedown of posts

Social networking giant Facebook on Friday explained its “Community Standards” after some posts of journalists and media groups were taken down.

“In order to maintain (an) open and safe environment on Facebook, we have global Community Standards that describe what is and is not allowed on our service,” Facebook said in a statement sent to INQUIRER.net.

Facebook said “anyone can report content to us if they think it goes against our standards.”

“Our teams, which span the globe, review these reports 24 hours, 7 days a week in dozens of languages. It doesn’t matter how many times a piece of content is reported, it will be treated the same,” it said.

“One report is enough to take down content if it violates our policies, and multiple reports will not lead to the removal of content if it meets our standards,” it added.

On June 1, journalist Ed Lingao’s Facebook post about the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani was taken down.

Lingao said he was barred from posting a status update for at least one day.

On June 4, the Facebook account of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (Ejap) was also taken down.

In the case of Lingao, Facebook said that it was “mistakenly removed” and has since been restored.

Facebook said they receive millions of reports each week and mistakes can happen, but they are acting quickly to resolve the issues raised to them.

In the case of the Ejap, Facebook said its profile was legitimately removed as it violated their authenticity policy.

It said personal profiles were for noncommercial use and represented individuals only.

Facebook said it was working with Ejap to transfer their profile to a Page and convert their friends to followers.