Facebook reveals how it chooses which content to take down
In an effort to appear more transparent to its users, social media giant Facebook has published a new blog post explaining how it decides what is allowed on the platform.
In the post, Monika Bickert VP of Global Product Management for Facebook, explained that the company has used a set of publicly-available community standards that explain what stays up and what comes down.
However, for the first time, it is choosing to publishing the internal guidelines it uses to enforce those standards, and giving users the right to appeal decisions on individual posts in the event that you believe Facebook has taken it down by mistake.
“We decided to publish these internal guidelines for two reasons,” Bickert said.
“First, the guidelines will help people understand where we draw the line on nuanced issues. Second, providing these details makes it easier for everyone, including experts in different fields, to give us feedback so that we can improve the guidelines – and the decisions we make – over time.”
Bickert added that Facebook had set up a dedicated content policy team to help develop these community standards.
“We have people in 11 offices around the world, including subject matter experts on issues such as hate speech, child safety and terrorism. Many of us have worked on the issues of expression and safety long before coming to Facebook,” she said.
“Every week, our team seeks input from experts and organizations outside Facebook so we can better understand different perspectives on safety and expression, as well as the impact of our policies on different communities globally.”
Bickert said that based on this feedback, as well as changes in social norms and language, the standards evolve over time.
“What has not changed – and will not change – are the underlying principles of safety, voice and equity on which these standards are based. To start conversations and make connections people need to know they are safe,” she said.
Enforcement
While Bickert said that the company was on the right track with these guidelines, she noted that its enforcement still isn’t perfect.
“One challenge is identifying potential violations of our standards so that we can review them. Technology can help here. We use a combination of artificial intelligence and reports from people to identify posts, pictures or other content that likely violates our Community Standards.
“These reports are reviewed by our Community Operations team, who work 24/7 in over 40 languages. Right now, we have 7,500 content reviewers, more than 40% the number at this time last year,” she said.
“Another challenge is accurately applying our policies to the content that has been flagged to us. In some cases, we make mistakes because our policies are not sufficiently clear to our content reviewers; when that’s the case, we work to fill those gaps. More often than not, however, we make mistakes because our processes involve people, and people are fallible.”
Appeals
Bickert outlined the process for appealing posts that were removed for nudity/sexual activity, hate speech or graphic violence, as follows:
- If your photo, video or post has been removed because it violates the Community Standards, you will be notified, and given the option to request additional review.
- This will lead to a review by the Facebook team (always by a person), typically within 24 hours.
- If Facebook has made a mistake, it will notify you, and your post, photo or video will be restored
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