UK Edition 
Facebook set to scrap immunity for politicians posting fake news
Sources at the company say it is planning to reverse policy announced by Nick Clegg less than two years ago
Facebook is poised to scrap immunity for politicians who post fake news or abuse, with the social media giant signalling a climbdown on Friday.
Sources at the company said it was planning to reverse the policy announced by former deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg less than two years ago, which said statements from world leaders and MPs would be exempt from the speech rules that apply to other Facebook users.
Senior executives are now reconsidering the rule ahead of Facebook making a decision on whether to allow the former US President Donald Trump back onto the platform.
The reversal could have widespread implications for politicians, including those in the UK, who could see posts taken down for breaching misinformation or abuse rules.
In 2019, Sir Nick, now Facebook's head of public affairs, published a blog announcing that the organisation would no longer fact-check or apply its normal rules to posts from politicians because the company deemed them too "newsworthy".
At the time, he said: "We don't believe that it's an appropriate role for us to referee political debates and prevent a politician's speech from reaching its audience and being subject to public debate and scrutiny. That's why Facebook exempts politicians from our third party fact-checking programme."
However, Facebook was heavily criticised for its immediate ban of Mr Trump, who was blocked from a number of other social media sites, in the wake of his supporters storming the US Capitol in January.
At the time, Facebook said it had banned him because he had used the platform "to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government".
Last month, Facebook's Oversight Board, a body funded by the company to scrutinise its decisions, ruled that it had to decide within six months whether Mr Trump's ban would be made permanent.
Sources at the company have since told the New York Times that its current rules will be changed ahead of that decision so that politicians'posts will not automatically get immunity.
Instead, their posts will be treated like those of other users, albeit with some exceptions where rule-breaking posts will be left up if they are deemed "newsworthy". Facebook sources said the company will make public when such exemptions are made for politicians' posts.