Time for Facebook to grow up

FACEBOOK, in addition to being a social network for sharing pictures of cats and summer holidays, is also one of the world’s biggest disseminators of news. Regardless of whether it sources the news itself or simply distributes it, it is to all intents and purposes an international news organisation. It is time it started acting like one.

The bosses of Facebook have decided that some content is permissible and some is not. Pornography or nudity, for example, is not permitted and the organisation goes to great lengths to eradicate it from the site. But the rules on what is allowed have not kept pace with Facebook’s rapid evolution.

The rules are based on the flawed assumption that Facebook will primarily be used for the sharing of personal information. They are not designed to apply to Facebook as it exists today – namely, one of the world’s biggest means of distributing news, comment and propaganda, whether it comes from respected news sources, corporations, political parties or groups supporting international terror.

In this context, Facebook finds itself allowing videos of people being beheaded – albeit with a warning label – but bans pictures of a woman breastfeeding a baby.

This position is plainly unsustainable. Facebook’s guidelines must be updated, and it must start seeing itself as a publisher that owes a duty of care to its readers.

No-one is in any doubt that Facebook’s role as a distributor of news and information is one of the keys to its multibillion dollar success as a corporation.

If it wants to operate in this market, its bosses need to accept that with these opportunities come responsibilities.