Meta has decided to go by its Oversight Board’s recommendation to remove an exception that permitted users to share residential information of other users on the platform as long as it’s “publicly available.”
The board, in February 2022, asked Meta to tighten its policies surrounding the sharing of private home addresses over concerns about doxxing, The Verge reported.
Meta noted that implementation of this recommendation would strengthen privacy protection on platforms. The change is expected to be implemented by the end of the year.
“As the board notes in this recommendation, removing the exception for ‘publicly available’ private residential information may limit the availability of this information on Facebook and Instagram when it is still publicly available elsewhere,” the company said.
The company is also changing its response to posts that include pictures of the outside of private homes. Meta said it will not take action if “the property depicted is the focus of a news story unless shared in the context of organising protests against the resident.”
The Verge reported that company will continue to let users post their own addresses, and it won’t follow the Board’s recommendation to let other users reshare them.
Published on
April 11, 2022
