Facebook’s head of news partnerships, Campbell Brown, has defended the company’s decision to include Breitbart News in the social media site’s curated News tab.
Business Insider reports that Facebook’s Head of News Partnerships, Campbell Brown, has defended the site’s decision to include news agencies such as Breitbart News in the social media platforms newly announced News tab.
In a public Facebook post published this week, Brown stated: “I believe that in building out a destination for news on Facebook, we should include content from ideological publishers on both the left and the right — as long as that content meets our integrity standards for misinformation. All the content on Facebook News today meets those standards.”
Brown further stated that the News tab will be monitored for violations of Facebook’s standards. Brown said: “If a publisher violates our standards by posting misinformation or hate speech on our platform, they will be removed from Facebook News. We have intentionally created a section within News for top stories that will be curated by a team of seasoned journalists led by Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Kornblut. This team will focus on making sure news from top publishers who are investing in original reporting will appear at the top of the tab.”
Brown also stated her surprise at the reaction many had to Facebook’s decision not to police political ads from politicians on its platform, stating: “Having spent most of my pre-Facebook career as a journalist covering politics, I have been astonished at the reaction by other journalists to Facebook’s decision not to police speech from political candidates. I strongly believe it should be the role of the press to dissect the truth or lies found in political ads — not engineers at a tech company.
Brown further stated her belief in free speech and pride at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent comments committing to defending free speech on Facebook. “It has been a long-held American ideal that we win the day with better arguments, not by silencing those we disagree with. And especially in today’s hyper-partisan political environment, it is critical that we hold onto the values that make our country different and special.”
Brown then linked a Wall Street Journal article which outlined the pressure that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has faced recently for stating that the firm will attempt to be politically neutral. Read Brown’s full post on Facebook here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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