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Do you have any questions around how Facebook decides what should and shouldn’t stay on the platform? Ask the experts at Facebook - 3x £100 vouchers to be won

88 replies

EllieMumsnet · 21/03/2019 10:56

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We’ve been working with Facebook to find out the key areas users want to know about the social media platform. From our research and activity so far we have found 4 main areas that parents have questions around: ‘Moderating content’, ‘User's data privacy’, ‘Mental health & social media’ and ‘Safe use of the internet/Facebook’. We will be running 4 Q&A’s in order to cover these areas and allow MNers the chance to asked their questions on each topic.

This Q&A is about ‘moderating content’. This covers subjects such as: hate speech, inappropriate content and spam, fake profiles and false news.

Here’s what Facebook has to say: “We have a clear set of rules, called our Community Standards, which outline what is and isn't allowed on Facebook. People are very good at reporting things that break these rules. We have a team of thousands of content reviewers, based all over the world and they review content in every major language. This means that collectively our teams are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so we can respond to reports as quickly as possible, whenever and wherever they come from. We’re committed to making a safer platform for everyone"
#AskFacebook

Do you have questions on how Facebook monitors for hate speech or inappropriate behaviour? Perhaps you’d like to know more about the process moderators undertake or how Facebook are using artificial intelligence technology to help? Would you like to know how new accounts are verified? Maybe you would like to know how a post is determined as hateful? Or would you like to know how to report a post and the process that is involved with that?

Whatever questions you have around moderating content on Facebook, please post them on the thread below and we will choose approximately 10 for Facebook to answer. Everyone who posts their questions will be entered into a prize draw where 3 MNers will win a £100 voucher of their choice (from a list).

If you would like to ask questions about ‘user’s data privacy’ please click here
If you would like to ask questions about ‘mental health & social media’ please click here
If you would like to ask questions about ‘safe use of the internet/Facebook’ please click here

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Do you have any questions around how Facebook decides what should and shouldn’t stay on the platform? Ask the experts at Facebook - 3x £100 vouchers to be won
OP posts:
BristolMum96 · 21/03/2019 18:18

Who exactly decides the content guidelines? Who deems what appropriate or not?

MrsFrTedCrilly · 22/03/2019 11:03

When the hate speech is on a local media site do you expect them to act first and take down the posts? Are media organisations ever banned by Facebook for putting up content that attracts hate speech? I’m thinking about my local newspaper FB page that seems to run regular islamophobic content. It’s shameful and just fanning the flames of intolerance

daniel1996 · 25/03/2019 13:32

Self harm and male suicide and how quickly graphic content can appear within seconds of an event happening - are there settings which filter this out so that it does not appear on my children's timeline - before it is removed completely ? thank you

JanuarySun · 25/03/2019 13:42

I remember a few year's ago there was a lot of fuss about breastfeeding pictures being taken down. Where do you draw the line between breastfeeding and soft porn?

3boysandabump · 25/03/2019 14:33

I remember a few year's ago there was a lot of fuss about breastfeeding pictures being taken down. Where do you draw the line between breastfeeding and soft porn?

Really? There's a world of difference between the two.

Good0mens · 25/03/2019 15:30

I would like to know why disablist slurs such as "retard" are not classed as hate speech and are allowed to remain on the site. Do you have a list of unacceptable words? How is that list decided?

GooodMythicalMorning · 25/03/2019 16:04

Lots of fb posts are very sweary, whats the guidance on what amount of swearing is and isnt allowed to be posted?

catlady3 · 25/03/2019 16:40

I recently reported a comment suggesting someone bring a gun to a specific, planned event. The same person also said it would bring joy to kill a specific group of people. Apparently, neither comment violates community standards. How would the comments needed to be phrased to go against the standards? They seemed pretty clear cut to me and I believe this type of communication outs lives at risk. What are Facebook's criteria here?

ButterflyOfFreedom · 25/03/2019 17:00

What types of content is prohibited?
Presume porn/ terrorism/ drug related content... what else? And where do I find this information? Thanks

Ribeebie · 25/03/2019 17:00

I've previously reported comments that were very obviously racist in nature but not using specific racist words. These were not breaking the rules apparently. How do you decide whether something breaks your rules in terms of hate speech and racism?

Xiaoxiong · 25/03/2019 17:12

I've reported copycat accounts for years (using my very unique name) and proving my identity with ID documents. The response is invariably "this doesn't violate our community standards" with no further explanation, even when copycat accounts are clearly a breach of said standards. In addition my account has been disabled multiple times for, again, unexplained violations of community standards (no warning, just one day logging in and the message of the account being disabled).

It is currently disabled again (no explanation) and I have again submitted a form into the void with a picture of my passport to prove who I am. No response by email, even an automated "we have received your appeal against your account being disabled". All I can do is try and log in daily and hope that someone has done something.

As a loyal user of 15 years(!!!) standing, as evidenced by my user number and email address matching your founder's, most of my college and grad school friends are now only contactable on Facebook, school groups for my kids, Mumsnet groups etc.

Is it not worth providing some kind of limited explanation to users of why these decisions are made? How else can users figure out how to abide by the standards? I'd quite like to know whether it's my pictures of cakes or musings on local restaurants, liking old friends' baby announcements or possibly posts about what time school pickup is today...

Xiaoxiong · 25/03/2019 17:16

PS I have posted this here rather than on the other threads because I believe it's relevant to how Facebook responds to breaches of community standards, including moderating content. If no explanation is given for content removal or account disabling, then how can people abide by the rules of what content is allowed?

I find Mumsnet's explanations of why posts, threads and users are banned very helpful and allow all users to see why thing are moderated and understand how to abide by the rules. Perhaps Facebook could take a leaf out of MN's book here.

jacqui5366 · 25/03/2019 17:31

How many staff to you have whose duties are primarily to monitor and potentially delete facebook posts which fall foul of the standards, and do you thing there are enough

Gazelda · 25/03/2019 19:49

If a post is deemed to be in violation of the rules, do you delete it, or do you correspond with the poster to explain why it is being deleted?

At what point do you ban a poster?

SuzCG · 25/03/2019 20:30

How much better are you at moderating content now than you were previously? Would it not be better that comments were moderated and checked by your team of thousands before they were posted as live??

Paraballa · 25/03/2019 21:35

Why do you allow posts and groups encouraging hatred of women and when they're reported you say they don't breach guidelines?

GetKnitted · 25/03/2019 21:51

I have reported things which were outrageous, even though I don't know if they were hate speech, but it would help to know the limits?

BigFatGiant · 26/03/2019 09:41

I’ve seen a lot of memes and posts making light of child abuse/sexual abuse. I appreciate that humour does involve making light of inappropriate things but these posts weren’t humourous. They were genuinely promoting notions such as hitting children is good for them or ugly girls should be grateful that someone wants them enough to bother raping them. None of this seems to be outside of community guidelines though? Is it simply a case of expecting users to argue against these kinds of views? Isn’t Facebook concerned about how this effects it’s public image?

Popcornandbuttons · 26/03/2019 10:21

At what point do you make a referral to say the police or other bodies? Or do you just remove and block posts and leave it at that?

WinterHeatWave · 26/03/2019 11:17

How do you decide what is a fake profile, and what is people trying to be less identifiable? eg teachers or policemen using first and middle names? I have a friend whose profile was removed l, and he gas gad to put it in as first name surname, when he really would prefer not to be found by the people he has arrested.

MrsCurly · 26/03/2019 12:09

There was a very shocking Channel 4 documentary last summer where an undercover reporter working as a content reviewer inside Facebook and showed the system wasn't fit for purpose. All kids of shocking content was deemed fine to be on the site, including child abuse, violence, some type of pictures of self-harm and hate speech. There were backlogs too in terms of when reviewers were able to look at stuff. It's fine to say you have teams looking at this stuff but in practice you don't and the guidelines are shocking. One of the clips Channel 4 found of a child being abused was still on the site despite facebook saying they had taken it down. It's like the New Zealand mosque shooting footage - how can you be sure this stuff really is taken down and why should we believe you?

sharond101 · 26/03/2019 12:38

How do you identify paid which break guidelines?

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sarat1 · 26/03/2019 19:16

If someone reports a post as inappropriate, does it automatically get taken down or is it investigated first?

Bumblebeans · 26/03/2019 21:10

I've reported things which are clearly hate speech, yet have been allowed to remain.
If someone tells you something is deeply offensive why do you ignore this?

kateandme · 26/03/2019 22:11

if as a parent you know new talk was damaging or bullying to a particular person but wouldn't understand it as some people are clever in how they attack people would you still take it down.

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