Since August, media reports have highlighted suspension of accounts, marking of news stories as spam by Facebook.
With the general elections in India due early in 2019, greater attention is being paid to the digital space, which many believe will have a deep impact on the polls. Much of this attention is focused on Facebook, which was heavily criticised for its conduct in the run-up to the 2016 United States presidential elections after it emerged that political consultation firm Cambridge Analytica had accessed the private information of 87 lakh Facebook users world-wide for targeted political advertising.
Since August, media reports in India have quoted several journalists accusing Facebook of censoring political content. The internet company has been accused of doing this by temporarily suspending accounts, labelling news as ?spam?, and not permitting news organisations to promote their articles. But what sort of material invited such action by Facebook, and is the company picking sides as some have alleged?
Facebook started off simply as a way for people to connect. But it quickly grew into a massive public square, with the company having to decide what kinds of speech it would allow on its platform and what would get taken down.
However, many say Facebook?s content moderation policy ? some of which is automated ? is a never-ending series of challenging questions.
In response to Scroll.in?s emailed queries seeking clarity about this process, Facebook explained that accounts can be flagged for ?inauthentic behaviour?, including repetitive posting of the same content, location mismatch, frequent name changes.
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