Dan Milmo, writing for The Guardian:

The XCheck or “CrossCheck” system steers reviews of posts by well-known users such as celebrities, politicians and journalists into a separate system, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal. Under the programme, some users are “whitelisted” – not subject to enforcement action – while others are allowed to post material that violates Facebook rules, pending content reviews that often do not take place.

People are placed on the XCheck list – where they are given special scrutiny – if they meet criteria such as being “newsworthy”, “influential or popular” or “PR risky”. Names on the XCheck programme included Donald Trump, US senator Elizabeth Warren and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, although the report does not state whether those names were whitelisted at any point. By 2020 there were 5.8 million users on the XCheck list, the Wall Street Journal said.

Facebook has too much influence on society. And that isn’t going to change until people start leaving.

I would encourage everyone to delete their Facebook account and use something else — preferably something decentralized like Mastodon. Even if you don’t have any friends on it yet, be the early adopter. Be the one that convinces your friends to get out of the walled garden and start exploring the open web.

➝ Source: theguardian.com