Highlights:
- Facebook claims to have better hate speech tackling ability than Google and Twitter
- Facebook has tripled its team working on security and safety since 2016
- The European Union is scrutinizing Facebook over the spread of hate speech and misinformation
Facebook is facing scrutiny in the European Union (EU) over the spread of the misinformation and hates speech over its platforms and for this, the tech giant published an independent study saying the social media network is reviewing reports of hate speech faster than other tech giants.
Going by the report, Facebook has assessed 95.7% and 91.8% on Instagram of the hate speech notifications in under 24 hours compared to YouTube which is owned by Google which stands at 81.5% and Twitter which stands at 76.6%
The report also states that it is “only Facebook (who) informs users systematically; all the other platforms have to make improvements.”
Vice President of Integrity (Product Management), Facebook, Guy Rosen said, “While we recognize we have more to do, these results suggest we are moving in the right direction and have systems in place which continue to lead our industry,” in a statement late Tuesday.
Rosen said that the European Commission’s Vice President, Vera Jourova, and the Commissioner, Didier Reynders have recognized Facebook’s progress in tackling hate speech on its platforms.
The EU vehemently rejected Mark Zukerberg, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Facebook’s white paper on online content regulation, in February, saying that the social networking platform needs to take responsibility for any face, harmful and illegal content.
Thierry Breton, EU Industry Commissioner said that Facebook “was being slow in coming forward with ideas on how to remove illegal content and warning that the EU was preparing to act”.
Also Read: Microsoft Shuts Its Video Game Streaming Service “Mixer” Asks Users To Move To Facebook Gaming
As per Rosen, the company has even signed the code of conduct of the European Commission on countering the illegal, fake, misinformation, and even the hat speech online.
As a part of the code of conduct, the European Commission will run regular independent tests on every company which has the code of conduct to ensure that they are constantly on the lookout and are removing the content effectively and efficiently.
Facebook has said that it has tripled the size of its teams which are working on security and safety since 2016 to over 35,000 – this includes teams that review reports of hate speech 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In the recent transparency report which was shared by Facebook, the tech giant claimed that its AI (Artificial Intelligence) “finds and takes down almost 90 percent of the hate speech from Facebook before anyone reports it to us – up from 38 percent over the same period two years ago.”
The European Commission has asked Facebook, Twitter, Google, and many other social media platforms to report their monthly COVID-19 related misinformation on their respective platforms. The executive body of the European Union has asked these companies to provide with the monthly reports which should include detailed data on their actions to promote the authoritative content, improve the awareness of its users and limit the misinformation and advertising on COVID-19.
