\n
![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/9a285_shutterstock_186292982a.jpg?w=640&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
The Guardian<\/a> has published details of Facebook\u2019s content moderation guidelines covering controversial\u00a0issues such\u00a0as violence, hate speech and self-harm culled from more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts that the newspaper has\u00a0seen.<\/p>\n The documents\u00a0set out in black and white some of the contradictory positions Facebook has adopted for dealing with different types of disturbing content as it tries to balance taking down content with holding its preferred line on \u2018free speech\u2019. This\u00a0goes some way\u00a0towards explaining why the company\u00a0continues to run into moderation problems. That and the tiny number of people it employs to review and judge flagged content.<\/p>\n The internal moderation guidelines show, for example, that Facebook allows\u00a0the sharing of some photos of non-sexual child abuse, such as depictions of bullying, and will only remove or mark up content if there is deemed to be a sadistic or celebratory element.<\/p>\n Facebook\u00a0is also comfortable with imagery showing animal cruelty \u2014 with only content that is deemed \u201cextremely upsetting\u201d to be marked up as disturbing.<\/p>\n And the platform apparently allows users to live stream attempts to self-harm \u2014 because it\u00a0says it \u201cdoesn\u2019t want to censor or punish people in distress\u201d.<\/p>\n When it comes to violent\u00a0content, Facebook\u2019s guidelines\u00a0allow videos of violent deaths to be shared, while marked as disturbing, as it says they can help create awareness of issues. While certain types of generally violent written statements \u2014 such as those advocating violence against women, for example \u2014 are allowed to stand\u00a0as Facebook\u2019s guidelines require what it deems \u201ccredible calls for action\u201d in order for violent statements to be removed.<\/p>\n The policies\u00a0also include guidelines for how to deal\u00a0with revenge porn. For this type of\u00a0content to be removed Facebook requires\u00a0three conditions are fulfilled\u00a0\u2014 including that the moderator can \u2018confirm\u2019 of a lack of consent via a \u201cvengeful context\u201d or from an independent source, such as a news report.<\/p>\n Other\u00a0details from the guidelines show that anyone with more than 100,000 followers is designated a public figure and so denied the protections afforded to private individuals; and that Facebook changed its policy on nudity following the outcry over its decision to remove an iconic Vietnam war photograph depicting a naked child screaming. It now allows for \u201cnewsworthy exceptions\u201d under its \u201cterror of war\u201d guidelines. (Although images of child nudity in the context of the Holocaust are\u00a0not allowed on the site.)<\/p>\n The expos\u00e9 of internal rules comes\u00a0at a time when the social media giant is under mounting\u00a0pressure<\/a> for the decisions it makes<\/a> on content moderation.<\/p>\n In April<\/a>, for example, the German government backed a proposal to levy fines of up to \u20ac50 million on social media platforms for failing\u00a0to remove illegal hate speech promptly. A UK parliamentary committee has also this month<\/a> called on the government to look at imposing fines for content moderation failures. While,\u00a0earlier this month<\/a>, an Austrian court ruled Facebook must remove posts deemed to be hate speech \u2014 and do so globally, rather than\u00a0just blocking their visibility locally.<\/p>\n At the same time Facebook\u2019s live streaming feature has been used to broadcast murders and suicides, with the company apparently unable to preemptively shut off streams.<\/p>\n In the wake of the problems with Facebook Live, earlier this month the company\u00a0said it would be hiring 3,000 extra\u00a0moderators<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 bringing its total headcount for reviewing posts to 7,500. However this remains\u00a0a drop in the ocean for a service that has close to\u00a0two billion users, who are sharing an aggregate of billions of pieces of content daily.<\/p>\n Asked for a response to Facebook\u2019s moderation\u00a0guidelines, an spokesperson for the UK\u2019s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children described the rules\u00a0as \u201calarming\u201d and called for independent regulation of the platform\u2019s\u00a0moderation policies \u2014 backed up with fines for non-compliance.<\/p>\n \u201cThis insight into Facebook\u2019s rules on moderating content is alarming to say the least,\u201d the spokesperson told us. \u201cThere is much more Facebook can do to protect children on their site. Facebook, and other social media companies, need to be independently regulated and fined when they fail to keep children safe.\u201d<\/p>\n In its own statement responding to the Guardian\u2019s story, Facebook\u2019s Monika Bickert, head of global policy management, said: \u201cKeeping people on Facebook safe is the most important thing we do. We work hard to make Facebook as safe as possible while enabling free speech. This requires a lot of thought into detailed and often difficult questions, and getting it right is something we take very seriously. Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that over the next year, we\u2019ll be adding 3,000 people to our community operations team around the world \u2014 on top of the 4,500 we have today \u2014 to review the millions of reports we get every week, and improve the process for doing it quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n She also said Facebook is investing in technology to improve its content review process, including looking at how it can do more to automate content review \u2014 although it\u2019s currently mostly using automation\u00a0to assist human content reviewers.<\/p>\n \u201cIn addition to investing in more people, we\u2019re also building better tools to keep our community safe,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to make it simpler to report problems to us, faster for our reviewers to determine which posts violate our standards and easier for them to contact law enforcement if someone needs help.\u201d<\/p>\n CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously talked<\/a> about using AI to help parse and moderate content at scale \u2014 although he also warned such technology is likely years out.<\/p>\n Facebook is clearly pinning its long term hopes for the\u00a0massive content moderation problem it is saddled with on\u00a0future automation. However the notion that algorithms can\u00a0intelligently judge such human complexities as when nudity may or may not be appropriate is very much\u00a0an article\u00a0of faith on the part of the technoutopianists.<\/p>\n The harder political reality for Facebook is that pressure from the outcry over its current content moderation failures will force it to employ\u00a0a lot more humans to clean up its act in the short term.<\/p>\n Add to that, as these\u00a0internal\u00a0moderation guidelines show, Facebook\u2019s own position in apparently wanting\u00a0to balance openness\/free expression with \u2018safety\u2019 is inherently contradictory \u2014 and invites exactly the sorts of problems it\u2019s running into with content moderation controversies.<\/p>\n It would be relatively\u00a0easy for Facebook to ban all imagery showing animal cruelty, for example \u2014 but such a position is apparently \u2018too safe\u2019 for\u00a0Facebook. Or rather too limiting of its ambition\u00a0to be\u00a0the<\/em> global platform for sharing. And every video\u00a0of a kicked dog is, after all, a piece of content for Facebook\u00a0to monetize. Safe to say, living with that\u00a0disturbing\u00a0truth is only going to get more uncomfortable for Facebook.<\/p>\n In its story, the Guardian quotes a content moderation expert, called Sarah T Roberts, who underlines how\u00a0Facebook\u2019s\u00a0content moderation problem is a result of the vast\u00a0scale of its \u2018community\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing when you\u2019re a small online community with a group of people who share principles and values, but when you have a large percentage of the world\u2019s population and say \u2018share yourself\u2019, you are going to be in quite a muddle,\u201d she said. \u201cThen when you monetise that practice you are entering a disaster situation.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Featured Image: Twin Design<\/a>\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/5hZ3jINxrwY\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Guardian has published details of Facebook\u2019s content moderation guidelines covering controversial\u00a0issues such\u00a0as violence, hate speech and self-harm culled from more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts that <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-5547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t