The more and more racist comments are being allowed to stand on FB

[JimandPam]

I am still a pretty frequent user of FB and find it useful for keeping in touch with overseas family and also part of hobby groups/kids days out ideas etc

I've always been a part of my local community Facebook and whilst most of the time comments/posts are in good faith, I've noticed more and more vile posts that are either racist or homophobic. I always report them using the appropriate tools

However, over the last 6 months I've noticed these comments are allowed to stand and I don't understand why

Two recent examples:
A community post about bad driving in a notorious spot in our town. I reported two comments

1. X Town used to be nice before all of Africa moved in
2. Never had this problem when they used to be on jam jars

After taking 30 days to review I've been told that neither of these comments break their community guidelines. What?? I've reopened them and added comments but I'm finding this more and more that my reporting is not being upheld

I know the simple answer is to use FB less but I'm seeing this all over SM where hateful comments are reported but not taken down.

AIBU to think the above should have simply been removed on reporting them or am I going mad?

Freedom of speech means acceptance of the consequences.

It's disappointing the FB moderation bar is so low but I think its a manpower issue.

The various Facebook town groups I am on have got really bad lately.
Constant comments about "boat people".
What worries me is whether this is people just saying stuff to sound edgy or whether that actually believe some of what they say (for example a new housing estate gets built - "oh that will be for the boat people").

Fb moderation is next to useless. I've reported posts before pointing out which specific community guidelines they breach and still got told they didn't break and rules.

Much of it is done by ai which may be able to pick up on racist words but more subtle racism like the jam jar comment above may not be picked up.

The moderation that isn't ai is done by subcontractors from developing countries working to strict deadlines

No but some of us would like to navigate private platforms in a civilised manner without having to navigate ugly racism and misogyny.

I know racists exist - I don’t see why I have to view their racism everywhere. At least provide us with an option to ONLY see friend’s and family content.

Or the platforms should do away with moderation full stop - say they are doing that and then we can just exist the platform (like I did with the cesspit Twitter.)

On FB you won’t be moderated for being racist but you will be moderated for calling somebody racist!

Exactly

Is that the world you want to live in? Where being openly racist and hateful is fine? All of this “freedom of speech” crap is just a smokescreen for allowing racism, homophobia and Islamophobia.

Not just FB. I play a word game on iphone and even in the team chat you cannot escape the racism!

The reporting side is probably handled by AI.

Remember the reports of how little time it took an AI to become racist once exposed to the Internet? Lots of money went into that before they had to take it offline. Because it learns what it learns - which isn't references to historical jam labels and or countries.

Mark Zuckerberg and the others bent the knee to Trump before the election and pledged to allow freedom of speech on their platforms making those comments acceptable. I would leave those groups because I don’t want to see them either.

Unsurprising considering Musk outing himself.

Similar on mumsnet, some very disturbing openly anti muslim comments and threads are left to stand as free speech.

Ah I see, thanks for that. I have seen that kind of stuff in the past myself, but thankfully it’s usually ‘top contributor’ aka the local clown and one of their cronies laughs.

@Futb your ask for me to give examples of what 'I think' is homophobic is telling

On a very quick scroll about a young boy who got an award for his work with other kids who have been rejected by their parents due to their sexuality was this comment

"People from Sodom and Gomora got killed by fire because of their sins and now this people repeat the same thing, just wait God's anger get full😊 because He still gives y'all time to change your minds. No hate just tellin' the truth. It is true that regret is in the end"

Is this homophobic enough?

I too much preferred it when you just saw your own friends and family

I do like the idea of screenshotting comments and sending to their employers though!

What does the jam jar comment mean?

Golliwogs

Hence why I stopped my social media usage for meta or Musk-controlled platforms. No X, no facebook, no instagram.

@Fencehedge thank you for clarifying, I am aware of golliwogs but was not aware of them being on jam jars.

Yeah, that comment was racist. Awful.

Social media seems to be the same. I've reported loads of stuff and it's still there. You'll just get loads of nasty cunts telling you it's free speech. I think it's a frog in water situation where it's becoming normalised.

It’s awful, I agree, but it’s the natural end result of banning people for stating facts such as a woman is an adult female human etc.

That lunacy went on for years unchecked until Musk bought Twitter. Those of us who objected were dismissed as bigots and Nazis.

Both are extremes. Hopefully some actual adults will enter the room, but that didn’t happen under the Democrats and won’t happen now, unfortunately.

How can it be a good thing? They are commenting about real people with real feelings. Why should a woman need to hear about what a man (stranger) thinks of her body? Or children (mine included) need to hear racist abuse from grown men? How do you think that affects them? Keep the vile thoughts in their head I say - no-one needs to hear it. Let's normalise being kind and if you have nothing nice to say then don't say it. Not the same as having a political debate with opposing views.

I agree with your outrage OP. I report obvious racist comments and they are almost never deleted. I hope if a comment is reported often enough it might get reviewed although I suspect not.
I've appealed the decisions but the racist comments have still not been removed.

I am not talking about subtle comments but really blatant ones.

Firstly I guess it depends who the person is who is deciding if it's racist / hate speech etc

I have reported the most vile antisemitism and they always say it doesn't breach their community standards. I suspect the outcome depends on who reviews it, and their knowledge of the topic.

Yet other people get kicked out for swearing.

I have just resigned myself to the fact that Facebook doesn't have any community standards and that's why nothing much breaches it.

I agree with this.

I've seen posts by some folks I had good relationships with that have made me go 'aha, so that's who you are '. I prefer an unmasked racist/sexist/homophobe etc, than a closeted one.

True
Although a lot of people hide behind fake names and profiles to spout their abuse.
Which can then radicalise others. I'm not sure what the best form of action is, it's complicated for sure.

We are. I left Facebook because I was sick of seeing racism.