Facebook let associates of US president Donald Trump, including his son Donald Trump Jr., post misinformation on its platform during the final months of the presidential election campaign, and did not take proportionate action against these users to avoid being accused of "anti-conservative" bias, reported the Washington Post. The revelations come after months of accusations by Republican leadership that Facebook is biased against their party, and only days after these accusations were aired in a high-profile hearing by a US Senate. The accusation — that Facebook let slide objectionable content by those close to political power — is almost a mirror image of the one it has faced in India. Earlier in August, the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook chose to not take action on hate speech posted by members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), fearing adverse impacts to its business interests in the country. What did Facebook (not) do in the US? Sources told the Post that Facebook users such as a pro-Trump political financier group, the president's eldest son and others had received preferential treatment from the social media giant. Strike removed from Trump's son's Instagram account: Facebook-owned Instagram removed a strike against Donald Trump Jr who had shared misinformation. The strike would have made him a "repeat-offender", which would have attracted penalties such as reduced visibility in searches. A former Facebook employee reportedly said that this was only one of the numerous strikes removed for the sake of president Trump's family members. Plan to…
