Fixing mistakes for better content moderation: Facebook

San Francisco, July 18: Facing ire over reports that it is protecting far-right activists and under-age accounts, Facebook on Wednesday said it takes the mistakes incredibly seriously and is working on to prevent these issues from happening again. Channel 4 Dispatches — a documentary series that sent an undercover reporter to work as a content moderator in a Dublin-based Facebook contractor, showed that moderators at Facebook are preventing Pages from far-right activists from being deleted even after they violate the rules. In a blog post, Monika Bickert, Vice President of Global Policy Management at Facebook, said the TV report on Channel 4 in the UK has raised important questions about our policies and processes, including guidance given during training sessions in Dublin.

The documentary also showed that Facebook moderators have turned blind eye to under-age accounts. “Moderators are told they can only take action to close down the account of a child who clearly looks 10-year-old if the child actually admits in posts they are under-aged,” reports said, citing the documentary. Facebook said it has immediately required all trainers in Dublin to do a re-training session — and is preparing to do the same globally.

Facebook had earlier promised to double the number of people working on its safety and security teams this year to 20,000. This includes over 7,500 content reviewers. The company said it does not allow people under 13 to have a Facebook account. Facebook said it does have a process to allow for a second look at certain Pages, Profiles, or pieces of content to make sure it has correctly applied its policies. (IANS)