There are just too many sensitive decisions for Facebook to make them all on its own, Zuckerberg said last month. A string of violent attacks, including a mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand, recently forced Facebook to reckon with the scourge of white nationalist content on its platform. "Lawmakers often tell me we have too much power over speech," Zuckerberg wrote, "and frankly I agree."
In late 2017 and early 2018, Facebook explored whether certain groups should be afforded more protection than others. For now, the company has decided to maintain its policy of protecting all racial and ethnic groups equally, even if they do not face oppression or marginalization, says Neil Potts, public policy director at Facebook. Applying more "nuanced" rules to the daily tidal wave of content rushing through Facebook and its other apps would be very challenging, he says.