VIP pug life… A bombshell WSJ report revealed Facebook rolled out the moderation red carpet for at least 5.8M celeb users — including Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, soccer star Neymar, and even Doug the Pug. The drama revolves around a secret program known as “XCheck,” which shields millions of VIP users from FB's normal moderation process — kind of like an invisible verified badge.
Reporting politicians... It happens. Famous people get reported more than Berta from Oregon, even if their posts aren't flag-worthy. XCheck was conceived as a quality-control measure for actions taken against these high-profile accounts.
This drama adds fuel to the fire… the big, familiar fire. Social giants like FB and Twitter have been accused of letting abusive content run rampant, not applying moderation policies equally, and acting more like editors than social platforms. The mishandling of XCheck gives ammo to legislators who’ve argued for years that social giants should bear more liability for users' posts. TBD if they ever will.