Whitelisted Facebook accounts allowed to break the rules

5.8 million high-profile individuals on 'XCheck' are protected from content moderation

Facebook operates a system of whitelisting for prominent individuals including politicians, celebrities and sports stars.

The 5.8 million people on the 'XCheck' whitelist, including Donald Trump (prior to his banning from the site), US senator Elizabeth Warren and Brazilian footballer Neymar, are far less likely to be reprimanded for breaking the social media platform's content rules.

The continued use of XCheck was reported by the Wall Street Journal, quoting an unnamed Facebook employee, who said the platform "routinely makes exceptions for powerful actors".

Many Facebook employees can add people to the XCheck whitelist, the paper reports, with those listed enjoying some immunity from moderators tasked with taking down content that breaks the rules.

It quotes the example of Neymar, who published correspondence with a woman who accused him of rape, including her name and nude photos. Moderators were prevented from taking action under the usual rules preventing publication of ‘non-consensual intimate imagery' because the football star is whitelisted.

Facebook does not keep a full record of who is on XCheck and why, according to the WSJ.

The system has been running in a semi-official fashion since at least 2018, when in response to an exposé by Channel 4, the company said that content published by those listed under 'Cross Check' (as it was then called) would be subject to "a second layer of review to make sure we've applied our policies correctly."

At the time, the company admitted the system needs to be improved and expressed a desire to remove it, but its continued existence prompted disapproving comments from some employees.

"Having different rules on speech for different people is very troubling to me," a staff member wrote in a memo seen by the WSJ.