Ellie Kesselman
Sep 9, 2018 · 1 min read

A publisher is more than just a company or person that curates and distributes content. Publishers also pay for content to be produced, e.g. through editorial staff. (That is a minor addition, and remains consistent with what you said, for the most part.) Both a platform and a publisher can have liability though, e.g. for unlicensed display of images.

Facebook passed the point of no return, even as a platform, long ago. It arbitrarily censors certain content, whether freely contributed by users (e.g. breastfeeding mother photos) or paid advertising such as the Chick-fil-a Huckabee page you mentioned. Facebook has already gone beyond a pure platform, and quite duplicitously, as there are no clear guidelines for what it considers unacceptable content, be it user-contributed or by paying customers. You rightly identified that, and the need for consistently applied standards.

    Ellie Kesselman

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    Statistician