Facebook Won’t Let You Use A Fake Name. Why Can You Post A Fake Video?
If authenticity is core to Facebook, it should be core to Facebook’s content.
Facebook’s Authenticity Problem
Facebook has a problem with fake content on its platform. For example, in the last few weeks, Facebook has faced criticism in connection with a doctored video of Nancy Pelosi, which had been edited to make Pelosi appear to slur her words. While the main video appears to have been removed (presumably by the Facebook page rather than the site itself), you can find similar videos with titles like “ALERT! Pelosi BOTCHES EVERYTHING In Her WORST SPEECH Yet” or “Nancy Pelosi suffers awkward 5-second brain freeze, garbles words.”
Arguably, creating and posting the video violated Facebook’s policy against inauthentic behavior such as “mislead[ing] people in an attempt to encourage shares, likes, or clicks.” Facebook crafted these policies, after all, in response to literal fake news stories spreading around the site during the 2016 U.S. election. But Facebook did not take the video down. Instead, it issued a statement that “We remove things from Facebook that violate our Community Standards, and we don’t have a policy that stipulates that the information you post on Facebook must be true.” Subsequently…
