SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook has apologised after an investigation revealed moderators make the wrong call on almost half of posts deemed offensive.
The site admitted it left up offensive posts that violate community guidelines despite being armed with 7,500 content reviewers.
One such post was a picture of a corpse with the words ‘the only good Muslim is a f****** dead one’ which was left up by moderators despite being flagged to them.
Another showed a woman passed out on a bed, with the caption ‘what would you do?’.
According to the investigation, content reviewers do not always abide by the company’s guidelines and interpret similar content in different ways.
An investigation claims Facebook moderators make the wrong call on almost half of posts deemed offensive. Such posts include this one of a woman passed out on a bed, with a caption ‘what would you do?’. Facebook refused to take the post down
Many of these attacks do not violate company policy if they are against migrants.
Users reported both posts but received an automated message from Facebook saying it was acceptable.
‘We looked over the photo, and though it doesn’t go against one of our specific Community Standards, we understand that it may still be offensive to you and others’, the message read.
An anti-Muslim comment – ‘Death to the Muslims’ – was deemed offensive after users repeatedly reported it.
All comments on the reported posts were violations of Facebook’s policies but only one was caught, according to the full investigation by independent, nonprofit newsroom ProPublica.
The non-profit sent Facebook a sample of 49 items containing hate speech, and a few with legitimate expression from its pool of 900 crowdsourced posts.
The social network admitted its reviewers made mistakes in 22 of the cases.
Facebook blamed users for not flagging the posts correctly in six cases.
In two incidents it said it didn’t have enough information to respond.
Overall, the company defended 19 of its decisions, which included sexist, racist, and anti-Muslim rhetoric.
‘We’re sorry for the mistakes we have made,’ said Facebook VP Justin Osofsky in a statement. ‘We must do better.’
Facebook says it protects posts against key groups.
The company has claimed it will double the number of content reviewers in order to enforce rules better.
Agencies
