Editorial: Flip-flopping Facebook wrong to allow Pan assault video

On Feb. 4, to mark the 15th anniversary of Facebook going live, CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a note that indirectly acknowledged all the criticism the company had faced over its role in the spread of false, inflammatory and dangerous content.

“We’ve made real progress on these issues and built some of the most advanced systems in the world to address them,” he wrote. “But as people use these networks to shape society, it’s critical we continue making progress on these questions.”

Today Zuckerberg’s comments couldn’t look more hollow in light of Facebook’s refusal to remove the posting of a video by anti-vaccination activist Kenneth Austin Bennett showing himself shoving state Sen. Richard Pan on a street in Sacramento on Wednesday, which led to Bennett being cited for assault. Facebook said the incident wasn’t serious enough to violate its policies. This from a company that says it will automatically remove “language that incites or facilitates serious violence” and claims it is dedicated “to prevent potential offline harm that may be related to content on Facebook.”

Facebook did briefly take the video down Friday, then told an editorial writer it did so by mistake. Really? What a mess. It’s too bad Facebook hasn’t figured out allowing someone to celebrate an attack on a lawmaker by posting a video of it is inappropriate. Meanwhile, Bennett’s page continues to peddle false, inflammatory and dangerous content about Pan and vaccinations. So much for real progress.