Facebook employees tried to delete Donald Trump posts due to ‘hate speech’

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Donald Trump's statements about immigration on Facebook were labelled as hate speech by employees of the social network, who called for them to be taken down, according to a new report.

Sources told The Wall Street Journal that those reviewing content on the website argued for the comments to be taken down.

But according to the report they were asked not to remove the posts, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees it would be inappropriate to take them down.

The property tycoon's posts were first noticed by the network after he included a link to a December campaign statement entitled: “On preventing Muslim immigration.”

The statement called “for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.” It cited research saying that large segments of the Muslim population showed “great hatred towards Americans”.

Users flagged the post as hate speech, prompting discussion among employees online, many of whom pushed for his comments to be deleted. But managers said they should not be.

In response to the report, a Facebook spokeswoman said its reviewers considered the context of the post when assessing whether to take it down. “That context can include the value of political discourse,” she said. “Many people are voicing opinions about this particular content and it has become an important part of the conversation around who the next US president will be.”