FACEBOOK chief Mark Zuckerberg was accused of anti-democratic manoeuvres today after he announced that the site will be reducing the amount of political content it allows from contributors.

Mr Zuckerberg announced his decision in a quarterly report to investors, telling them that there were groups he did not want on the social media platform “even if they don’t violate (Facebook’s) policies.”

He said that although some political contributions would continue to appear, “one of the top pieces of feedback that we are hearing from our community right now is that people don’t want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services.”

Following the events of January 6, when far-right rioters stormed the Capitol Building in the US, Facebook was criticised for letting the extremists publicise their views and intentions.

Mr Zuckerberg said that the company was “still working through exactly the best ways” to deal with political comment.

But Granville Williams, organiser with the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom and editor of MediaNorth magazine, warned: “Social media giants like Facebook are now de facto monopolies and their actions banning Trump set a bad precedent which can now be used against political speech.”

Mr Williams, who is one of Britain’s leading experts on the media, said: “These firms are now so powerful that they have outgrown democratic control. 

“Facebook, Twitter and the other internet leviathans should be the targets of a campaign for far-reaching reform to make them democratically accountable.”

The latest issue of MediaNorth is available from http://mstar.link/medianorth.