CNN —
Facebook’s fact-checkers will need to stop fact-checking former President Donald Trump if he announces that he is running for president, according to a company memo obtained by CNN.
While Trump is currently banned from Facebook, the fact-check ban applies to anything Trump says and false statements made by Trump can be posted to the platform by others. Despite Trump’s ban, “Team Trump,” a page run by Trump’s political group, is still active and has 2.3 million followers.
Tuesday’s memo from Meta underscores the challenges social media platforms face in deciding how to handle another potential Trump presidential campaign. The former president is widely expected to announce his third presidential bid on Tuesday.
Facebook’s parent company Meta pays third-party fact-checking organizations to apply fact-check labels to misinformation across Facebook and Instagram.
The carve-out is not exclusive to Trump and applies to all politicians, but given the rate fact-checkers find themselves dealing with claims made by the former president, a manager on Meta’s “news integrity partnership” team emailed fact-checkers on Tuesday.
“Some of you have reached out seeking guidance regarding fact-checking political speech in anticipation of a potential candidacy announcement from former President Trump,” the Meta staffer wrote.
The company has long had an exception to its fact-checking policy for politicians.
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