Facebook Labels Government-Funded Media, But Doesn’t Do It With the US because it considers that they are independent…Some labels, such as RT, Sputnik, Ria Novosti, Press TV and Xinhua, have already received these labels, while neither the British BBC, partly funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign Ministry; nor the Al Jazeera channel, financed from Qatar, have yet been marked.
Facebook announced Thursday that it will begin to put special tags on pages of foreign media reporting that they are funded by governments.
In particular, the Russian media RT, Sputnik and RIA Novosti have already received these labels, as well as the Iranian channel Press TV and the Chinese agency Xinhua.
In the coming weeks, Facebook will block any promotions targeting US users. from media that receive such marks “as a precaution” before the November presidential elections. In the rest of the world, ads will be tagged.
However, the tech giant didn’t tag any US-based organizations, as the company believes that even the US government-funded media manages to retain editorial independence, Facebook’s chief cybersecurity policy said. Nathaniel Gleicher, collects Reuters.
Furthermore, neither the British BBC, partly funded by the UK Foreign Office; nor the Al Jazeera channel, financed from Qatar, have not yet received these labels.
What do the new Facebook rules say?
From Facebook they specified that the decision on the need to label one or other medium will be made based on an analysis of data on the owners and sources of financing, as well as on the evaluation of editorial control exercised by a government.
“If we determine that there are sufficient protections to guarantee editorial independence, we will not apply this label,” stressed Facebook at the same time.
To demonstrate its independence, the media must show the laws of the country of its headquarters that “clearly protect editorial independence”, procedures established in media itself to guarantee this independence, as well as an evaluation carried out by an “external, credible and independent organization ».
The medium that receives this label can appeal the decision.
The tags will be visible on media pages, as well as on ad library page and in ‘Page Transparency’ section. Also, during next week in US the tags will also appear in news feed.
