Facebook has created a control system that exempts famous users from adhering to the rules of the social network

Facebook has created a special control system that exempts VIP users from following the rules of the social network. About it it says in an investigation by The Wall Street Journal.

Such publications often go unnoticed by moderators, the newspaper writes, having studied a number of internal documents of the company.

The XCheck system, known as “cross-checking”, was originally developed by Facebook to monitor actions taken against high-profile accounts, including the pages of celebrities, politicians and journalists. But now, it allows users popular among the audience to publish posts with information that, according to the rules of the social network, should be blocked.

These privileged users posted, without consequence, posts, for example, that vaccines against coronavirus are deadly, Hillary Clinton covered a “pedophile group” or that former President Donald Trump called all refugees seeking asylum “animals.”

These users include all the same celebrities, politicians and athletes who are included in the so-called white list by the system.

So, in 2019, the Brazilian striker of the French football club PSG Neymar published photos of a naked woman who had previously accused him of rape, the newspaper claims. Neymar’s Instagram account, owned by Facebook, has over 150 million followers and is one of the most popular in the world. The photo was seen by tens of millions of fans of the football player before the administration of the social network nevertheless deleted the publication after numerous complaints.

As of 2020, there were about 6 million such privileged users on the social network.