Facebook created an XCheck ‘elite’ group – which is above the common rules

Millions of well-known users of Facebook should not have to follow the rules that apply to the rest of the users. These include athletes, actors, politicians and journalists of mostly liberal views.

A total of 5.8 million accounts were covered by a program called XCheck (cross check). This created an invisible elite among the small three billion users of the social network. In order to maintain the system, according to the American Newspaper, Facebook would have misled the Supervisory Board, which had just set up the company to see how it is enforcing its rules.

An example of a person who received preferential treatment is footballer Neymar. In 2019, the Brazilian was able to post nude photos on Facebook of a woman who had accused him of rape. Nude photos are always forbidden by the rules of Facebook.

Other accounts on the list could post messages with content that Facebook’s fact checkers had previously ruled incorrect.

In 2019, Facebook already reviewed the practices internally. This showed that users on the protected list were regularly favored.

“We do not do what we say publicly to do,” internal control wrote in a confidential document.

Facebook denies giving preferential treatment to certain users. According to a spokesperson, the criticism of XCheck was justified and the platform is in the process of phasing out the system of protected users. Facebook also denies having misled its own supervisory board.