Though Facebook has been earlier accused of having biased content moderation policies, the removal of 27 million posts on Facebook and Instagram in India has sparked a controversy on social media.
Also read | Technology can help solve India’s biggest challenges: Microsoft president
According to the PTI report, citing Meta’s monthly report, the company took down 17.3 million spam posts, 2.7 million pornographic or nude posts, 2.3 million violent and graphic posts and a lot more irrelevant content that was essential to be deleted.
Meta (formerly Facebook) also shared the details of actions taken on complaints under the grievance redressal mechanism, saying it had responded to 100 per cent of user reports. They also identified around 998,000 “Dangerous Organizations and individuals: Terrorism’ related content and eventually took action against 99.8 percent of the identified posts.
What does Meta’s monthly report say?
Under the IT Rules 2021(Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code), Meta revealed that the firm had removed 25 million posts on Facebook and 2 million posts on Instagram in July 2022.
The latest report also implies that the company removed content proactively at detection rates of 99.9 to 99.4 percent, which means most spam, x-rated content and graphically violent content have been deleted or removed by Facebook.
Why did Facebook and Instagram remove 27 million posts in India?
Meta has claimed that it removed over 900,000 posts related to suicide and self-injury, over 22,000 instances of hate speech and 370,000 posts related to sexual content. The proactive detection rates for these kinds of content stood at 99.5 per cent, 77.4 per cent, and 96 per cent, respectively.
Under the IT Rules, Meta’s social media platforms are expected to respond to users’ complaints via a grievance redressal mechanism. The company said that it received 626 and 1,033 reports from users on Facebook and Instagram respectively, and claims that it responded to all user reports.
The company resolved the issues for 603 reports by providing relevant tools and acted on 9 out of 23 complaints based on the company’s policies.
“Between 1st and 31st July, we received 626 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism, and we responded to 100 percent of these 626 reports. Of these incoming reports, we provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 603 cases.” stated the Meta report.
How does social media react to Meta?
“Hey Facebook, mind explaining to me how blatantly-racist comments don’t violate your precious Community Standards?” tweeted Matthew Johnson.
“Making easier by SUSPENDING my account for zero reasons. I’m awaiting a response to why- but so far it’s silent”
Making easier by SUSPENDING my account for zero reason. I’m awaiting a response to why- but so far it’s silent
— DENISE (@dkalentzis) July 21, 2022
“The Intercept report shows Meta has ‘double standards’ in moderating Ukraine and Palestine content” tweeted Redress Information and analysis.
The Intercept report shows Meta has ‘double standards’ in moderating Ukraine and Palestine content https://t.co/xv7o9Ac9m1
— Redress Information & Analysis (@redress) August 31, 2022
(Written by Zuhair Zaidi)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
