Facebook says it was 'not our role' to remove fake news during Australian election

Exclusive: Facebook executive Simon Milner says company 'only removes content that violates our community standards'

Facebook has declared it is not "our role to remove content that one side of a political debate considers to be false" in a final, positive, self-assessment of its actions in response to the death tax misinformation circulating on the platform during the May federal election.

In correspondence seen by Guardian Australia, Simon Milner, the Singapore-based vice-president of the social media giant in the Asia-Pacific, tells Labor's outgoing national secretary, Noah Carroll: "I understand that your preference would be for Facebook to remove all content that you believe constitutes misinformation - which in this instance mean all content that discussed whether or not Labor intends to introduce a death tax - rather than demote it; however Facebook only removes content that violates our community standards.