Facebook is continuing its war on “hate speech,” and has announced that it has removed a whopping 22.5 million posts due to hate speech related violations. That’s twice the number of posts than what it removed in the first quarter of 2020. Just two years ago, Facebook removed only 2.5 million posts on the grounds of hate speech.
Of late, Facebook has been at the receiving end of intense criticism from media outlets and Democratic politicians over its allegedly lackluster response when it comes to dealing with so-called “hate speech” and “misinformation” across the platform. In the last month alone, a huge number of companies have cut down on their ad spend on Facebook as a part of advertising boycotts in what has largely been seen as virtue signalling as the move hasn’t significantly impacted the company’s bottom line.
Facebook now says that it tracks down and wipes out at least 95% of the hate speech violations taking place on the platform through automation. CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said he dreams of a future when the company can remove 99% of all “hate speech” automatically without anyone having to report it.
The company is also constantly underlining the fact that its automated systems and practices are improving over time and are getting better at weeding out the alleged hate speech, misinformation, and other violations across the platform. Releasing quarterly reports with detailed analytics is nothing but Facebook’s way of answering criticism of its supposed inaction when it comes to showing the media and advertisers that it actually censors a whole lot and everyday users will certainly have felt the impact.
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