Facebook affixed a warning tag on Friday to a video released by the Republican National Committee (RNC) showing police officers run over by drivers during civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, the same day as the company announced a new policy. to mark publications “of journalistic interest” by politicians who break their rules.
“This video may show violent or graphic content,” says the warning in the Republican publication. “We cover this video so you can decide if you want to watch it.”
“It’s about destroying the United States,” says the caption for the RNC video. “Left-wing anarchists are using CHAOS to destroy the United States.”
The video features an incident with a New York police officer who was struck by a vehicle in what appeared to be a deliberate hit-and-run. It also features what appears to be a burning police cruiser, as well as scenes from the Church of St. John, which was wrecked during protests in Washington, DC
“As with other videos featuring this hit-and-run graph, we have included a warning screen to let people know that the content can be annoying,” a Facebook spokesperson told a CNN journalist.
The video begins with footage of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors saying “we are trained Marxists.” It also contains undated images of President Nancy Pelosi saying, “I don’t even know why there are no uprisings across the country,” as well as images of “Squad” members, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling to remove the police. and Representative Ilhan Omar called for the “complete dismantling” of the Minneapolis Police Department.
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On Friday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg also announced that its social media platform would add warning labels and notices to political posts that violate its policies. Zuckerberg said his decision came before the 2020 election and reflects “months of work with civil rights auditors.”
Zuckerberg’s new initiatives will provide “authoritative” voting information and work to combat voter suppression by eliminating misinformation about voting conditions. They will create a higher standard for “hate content” in ads, according to Zuckerberg, who added that Facebook believes there is a public interest in allowing a broader range of free expression in personal posts than in paid ads.
Additionally, Facebook will now add more tags to content that violates its policies, but is considered newsworthy. Zuckerberg added that there is no journalistic interest exception for content that incites violence or suppresses voting.
In late May, Zuckerberg called Twitter for attaching a fact check to a tweet from President Trump. Since then, Twitter has flagged three of Trump’s tweets.
“We have a different policy than, I think, Twitter on this,” Zuckerberg told Dana Perino of Fox News in “The Daily Briefing.”
“I firmly believe that Facebook should not be the arbiter of the truth of everything that people say online,” he added. “Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position to do that.”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey replied: “We will continue to report incorrect or disputed information about elections worldwide. And we will admit and assume the mistakes we make.”
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“This does not make us an ‘arbiter of truth,'” Dorsey added. “Our intention is to connect the points of the conflicting statements and display the disputed information so that people can judge for themselves. Greater transparency on our part is essential so that people can clearly see why behind our actions” .
Associated Press contributed to this report.
