By Elizabeth Culliford

(Reuters) – Facebook’s global safety chief stated this week that activists and journalists will be counted as public figures “involuntary”, and thus increase protections from harassment and bullying targeting these groups.

According to the social media platform, it allows for more criticism of public figures than private individuals. It is now changing how it views harassment of journalists and human rights defenders, who, it claims, are seen in public eyes because of their work, not their public personas.

Global regulators and lawmakers are monitoring Facebook’s content moderation and other harms. Internal documents that were leaked to the media last week provided the foundation for an U.S. Senate hearing.

There has been intense discussion about how Facebook treats public figures as well as content about them. Facebook has approximately 2.8 billion active monthly users. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the “cross-check” system of Facebook has had the effect to exempt some highly profile users from the usual rules.

Facebook distinguishes between private people and public figures in its protections for online discussions: users can generally call for the death or burial of celebrities in discussion on the site.

While the company refused to release a list, they said it would assess each case individually. Facebook stated earlier in the year it would delete content that celebrates, praises, or mocks George Floyd’s demise, since he was considered an involuntary, public figure.

Antigone Davis (Global Head of Safety at Facebook) stated that Facebook was expanding the types of attacks it wouldn’t allow against public figures. It did this to combat attacks which are disproportionately targeted at women, persons of color, and members of the LGBTQ community.

Facebook does not allow sexually explicit or inappropriate content. It will also ban derogatory images and drawings of sexualized photographshopped or drawn. Facebook may no longer permit direct criticisms on an individual’s appearance in comments posted to the profile.