Facebook expands ‘involuntary’ public figure option to journalists, activists

Facebook has decided that it will now consider activists and journalists as “involuntary” public figures on its platform so as to increase protection against harassment and bullying targeted at these groups, Facebook’s global safety chief said in an interview with Reuters this week.

Although it allows critical commentary of public figures and private individuals on the platform, Facebook, which has 2.8 billion monthly active users, went ahead and revamped its approach on the harassment of journalists and “human rights defenders”, who it said are in the public eye due to their work rather than their public personas.