Getting your account blocked is not a pleasant situation. Those who have dealt with it know what we're talking about. However, it has recently emerged that there are users who are treated much more loyally by Facebook and Instagram.
The management of the social network has a kind of "white list," the authoritative American edition Wall Street Journal reports. The journalists studied Facebook's internal documents, staff correspondence and spoke to a source within the company.
It turned out that there were about 5.8 million accounts on the white list as of 2020. The figure is not a small one. But when you remember that, as of 2018, the number of registered users on Instagram alone is 1.1 billion, you immediately realize that the number of privileged accounts is a drop in the bucket.
What privileges does the list offer?
Ordinary users' posts can be deleted automatically after the first complaint. And celebrities' accounts are protected from moderation - Facebook staff can only send controversial content to a special multi-level review.
But they don't leave celebrities unpunished, either. Their content is checked by XCheck, a cross-checking program. It investigates whether posts violate anti-bullying, sexual content, violence and insults.
But there's no punishment here either. According to media reports, the social network has not blocked accounts or deleted posts for fakes, but has given celebrities 24 hours to rectify the situation. However, these are isolated cases. More often, the posts and behavior of stars who violate the rules of the social network go unnoticed by the management. But people see everything.
Thus, thanks to the immunity received, accounts from the "white list" spread fakes that vaccines from COVID-19 are deadly, Hillary Clinton is linked to a secret organization of pedophiles, and Donald Trump considers refugees to be animals.
One egregious case occurred with Brazilian footballer Neymar. In 2019, the French PSG forward posted nude photos of a woman who accused him of rape. The post managed to be seen by tens of millions of the athlete's fans, with several thousand more subscribers reposting the publication. And only after the scandal leaked to the media, Facebook deigned to remove the post.
Moreover, the rules of the social network clearly state that not only the posts with nude photos must be deleted, but also the accounts of the people who post them. Needless to say, Neymar's account remains untouched.
How to get on the "white list"?
Journalists have found the criteria by which users are whitelisted are "press coverage" and "influence or popularity." However, users were not usually told that they had been marked as particularly important.
At the moment, among the privileged accounts are millionaire bloggers, film, television and showbiz stars. Also spotted on the list are profiles that are maintained on behalf of animals.
No other details about the reasons for the special list are available, even from Facebook's independent oversight board. The council's tasks are to review controversial cases and defend users' freedom of expression. The council began its work in the fall of 2020.
The agency is now demanding that the rules of the XCheck system and the criteria for adding accounts to the privileged list be disclosed.
Facebook's response
Back in June 2021, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said that the company was working on phasing out whitelisting. According to him, most of the accounts on them represent outdated information.
At the same time the lists keep growing because the company's employees have a right to register new VIP-users. The management of the IT giant had intended to stop the practice even before the scandalous articles appeared in the media.
However, after the publication of the scandalous articles, Facebook's Vice President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg responded sharply. He described the journalists' position as blatant lies and a deliberately one-sided interpretation of the facts.
The social network later announced a policy review. Will Facebook be able to stop pandering to "special" users? Or will it continue to secretly introduce loyalty measures for VIP accounts? One can only guess.