In the wake of COVID-19, tech companies have stepped up efforts to fight against misinformation on their platforms. Facebook has been making strides in this regard, launching many tools to curb the spread of misinformation like the recent coronavirus information center, using fact-checkers among others.
One person that has fallen prey and short of conforming to the guidelines during this period is celebrity presenter Douglas Lwanga. The social giant has threatened to delete his page permanently because of sharing fake news related to coronavirus on top of other restrictions.
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The page is poised to be deleted by 30th April 2020 and Douglas or any of his administrators will not be able to access it or its content.
It is not clear what piece of information did Douglas share but in most cases, Facebook uses AI and moderators to make sure the platform is free of misleading information, pornography, sensational content among others but also, its users are given a right to flag pages that are deemed inappropriate or post any of the aforementioned content.
What could lead to page deletion?
- In case Facebook has any reason to suspect that the page is fake, it can delete the page. In most cases, scammers use fake identities to fleece unsuspecting individuals of their belongings using fake identities thus the deletion.
- A page can also be deleted in case it is suspected of being a clone of another person’s real account.
- In case the page owner is repeatedly violating Facebook’s terms of service.
- In case Facebook received a request from the account owner to delete the page.
- In case family members reached out on behalf of the deceased owner to delete the page.
For Douglas’ case, his page could be facing the axe could be because he violated the platform’s terms of service.
How to stop your page from being deleted?
Facebook allows anyone facing such circumstances to appeal to have their pages spared.
