Additionally, the person wrote: “At best, it would be a very difficult policy discussion”.Īccording to a spokesperson for the social media giant, the company bases its decision on the specific content published on Facebook, not the entire Breitbart site, and that the Facebook material met the company's requirements, including the need to follow its anti-misinformation and anti-hate speech policies. The WSJ report stated that according to the written conversations on Facebook’s office communication system, the anonymous employee then wrote that these articles were “emblematic of a concerted effort at Breitbart and similarly hyperpartisan sources (none of which belong in News Tab) to paint Black Americans and Black-led movements in a very negative way”.Ī company researcher noted in the same conversation that any steps intended at removing Breitbart could meet internal difficulties due to the potential political fallout. The unnamed Facebook employee posted screenshots of some of the headlines from the news website on the message board, such as "Minneapolis Mayhem: Riots in Masks," and "Massive Looting, Building in Flames, Bonfires!" However, according to internal papers supplied to the WSJ, Facebook ignored the comment posted by the employee.įollowing Floyd's death, massive Black Lives Matter rallies swept the country, with millions of people demanding attention to issues of racial justice and police brutality.ĭespite employee protestations, the social media company decided to leave problematic content about the protests from Breitbart-popular with former American President Donald Trump's followers-on its News Tab.
Facebook's News Tab is a tool that collects and promotes articles from a variety of sources. Last year in June, when the African American man George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis officer on the street, a Facebook employee wrote on the company's racial-justice conversation board, “Get Breitbart out of News Tab”.īreitbart or Breitbart News is a syndicated American news website created by American journalist Andrew Breitbart. Lawyers for Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen provided the majority of the redacted business records to the United States Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission and a group of news organisations.Īccording to a report by The Wall Street Journal, some of these internal documents have revealed that politics has been playing a significant part in Facebook's decision-making process.
Since last week, multiple news outlets began reporting on findings from a cache of Facebook internal papers that had been leaked.
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