An anonymous tip from last year accuses Meta executives of moderating OnlyFans content on Facebook in exchange for cash.
The whistleblower says that the confidential reports contain a slew of accusations against Meta, in connection with the federal lawsuit involving OnlyFans, Engadget reports.
The Six-Month Old Report Claims That Meta Has Been Taking Bribes
Two executives at Facebook's parent company were accused of being involved in a bribery scandal that attempts to treat OnlyFans content on the platform differently.
The report that was sent to the company's investigation team in August 2021 implies that some of Meta's employees take bribes to protect OnlyFans content on Facebook.
A class-action lawsuit filed by three adult entertainers in February says that executives accepted bribes in the scheme that shields OnlyFans from Meta's adult content-banning algorithm.
Additionally, Meta employees were also accused of blacklisting other platforms that rival OnlyFans across Facebook by reporting their content to threat-detection databases.
Daily Wire reports that the lawyers working with OnlyFans and Meta got the confidential tip that allegedly reveals wire transfers from OnlyFans' owner and the workers that took money.
However, a Meta spokesperson denies the accusations as they claim that there was not sufficient evidence to back up the reports.
Similarly, OnlyFans denied all the allegations, saying that the believability and merit of the contents of the report is impossible to assess without the identity of the whistleblower.
This is in accordance with the Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that says that no user of an interactive computer service should be treated as an information content provider.
The report sent by the whistleblower was from SpeakUp's web portal, which is open to the public, meaning that the anonymous tip could have been from anyone.
Meta's Content Moderation Is In Focus
The rampant misuse of Facebook's whitelists that excuse policy violations in the platform have been widely discussed by employees through the years, Gizmodo writes.
This was revealed by the documents leaked last year by whistleblower Frances Haugen, showing that employees have been flagging internal whitelists that Meta execs ordered to clean up.
The auditing process of Meta in 2019 found that adding accounts to the whitelist are rarely reviewed, which is why the company is reining in on how to repeal the problem with adult content.
According to Meta employees, the problem with whitelisting has become pervasive and widespread, which is why the company plans to address the whitelist problem abruptly.
Connectedly, OnlyFans has also pledged to ensure the long-term sustainability of their platform by monitoring sexually-explicit content, Gizmodo says.
However, the change aiming to host a more inclusive community in the platform has been threatened by a creator strike, forcing OnlyFans to retract.
With OnlyFans and Facebook finding themselves in a crossroads because of this, the whistleblower took the opportunity to leak the documents due to financial motivation.
At the moment, OnlyFans still runs about 150 ads across Facebook in the middle of the controversial lawsuit involving the two entities.
