Leading up to the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, Facebook announced its efforts to prevent online content from leading to offline harm.
In a blog post, Facebook Vice President of Content Policy Monika Bickert wrote teams are removing calls to violence in Minneapolis, but not other locations. Notably, George Floyd’s death last year prompted protests nationwide.
That geographic limitation, however, could change. “We will continue to monitor events on the ground to determine if additional locations will be deemed as temporary, high-risk locations,” Bickert wrote.
She added, “We want to strike the right balance between allowing people to speak about the trial and what the verdict means, while still doing our part to protect everyone’s safety.”
Facebook and Instagram posters will be allowed to discuss the trial without seeing their posts erased, since the social media giant considers Derek Chauvin a public figure. Facebook considers Floyd an involuntarily public figure, so praise, celebration or mockery of his death will be removed. In addition, content that Facebook’s screeners consider graphic will be marked as disturbing or sensitive.
