Secret Facebook program reportedly let celebrities avoid moderation

Facebook maintains a secret program to exempt athletes, politicians, and other high-profile users from its typical moderation process, according to The Wall Street Journal. The program is reportedly meant to stop “PR fires,” or bad press caused by pulling down photos, posts, and other content from high-profile users that should have been allowed to stay up. In reality, the program just lets these users break the rules in ways that would have gotten most people into trouble, according to the report.

The program is known as XCheck, or “cross check,” and it’s ostensibly meant to provide additional quality control around moderation when it comes to high-profile users, according to the Journal. Posts from users flagged for XCheck are supposed...

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