• World
  • Columnist
  • Commodities
  • WORLD BUSINESS & ECONOMY
  • Executive Knowledge Series
  • Finance
  • Manufacturing
  • Markets
  • Risk & Governance
  • Small Business
  • Technology, Media & Innovation
  • Comments
  • Business AM WebTV
  • Login

Businessamlive
  • FRONTPAGE
  • FINANCE
    • AllAsset ManagementAuditBankingBondBudgetCapital MarketsC&I LeasingCurrencyDealDebt marketForexFund RaisingFundingGovernmentHedge FundsInsuranceInvestmentInvestorInvestor ServicesMergers & AcquistionsMoney marketTreasury BillsMortgagePensionsPersonal financePonziQuantitative EasingshareTaxationTSAWealth Management
      Finance

      CBN says cryptocurrency ban in interest of Nigerians

      February 25, 2021

      Companies-in-Action

      Zenith Bank in strong operational performance as profit rises 10.4% to N230.56bn in FY20

      February 25, 2021

      Companies

      United Capital posts strong numbers as earnings rise 50% to N12.87bn in 2020

      February 23, 2021

      Finance

      CIBN revives mentorship initiative for bank workers

      February 20, 2021

  • MARKETS
  • ECONOMY
    • AllAfricaAgricAirportsAmericaAsiaAustraliaBreakthroughDealEuropeForeign InvestmentsforexGlobal marketGovernanceIMFMiddle EastNECANigeriaOutlookRich listSouth AfricaSport BusinessTradeU.KWest AfricaWorld Economic forum
      Insurance Business

      Enterprise risk management surges amid pandemic, RIMS reports

      February 25, 2021

      WORLD BUSINESS & ECONOMY

      Hyundai to recall 82,000 electric cars over battery malfunction

      February 25, 2021

      Frontpage

      Global health insurance premiums fall amid pandemic, says new report

      February 24, 2021

      Frontpage

      Insurance M&A record highest growth in Africa, Middle East in 2020

      February 23, 2021

  • COMMODITIES
  • ENERGY
    • AllConferenceElectricityOil and GasPowerRenewable
      Oil and Gas

      REA delivers 100kW hybrid solar mini grid to Edo community

      February 25, 2021

      Oil and Gas

      OPL 310: LEKOIL engages Optimum Petroleum over CRSA agreement

      February 25, 2021

      Frontpage

      Nigeria still losing 200,000bpd crude daily as NNPC enlists army’s intervention

      February 25, 2021

      Frontpage

      Nigeria to sell 170MW electricity capacity to Togo from Calabar plant

      February 24, 2021

  • TECHNOLOGY
  • MANUFACTURING
  • ANALYSIS
    • Analyst Insight

      Coronation MB analysts project sharp rates rise after Nigeria recession exit

      February 25, 2021

      Analyst Insight

      How NITDA can further foster data protection compliance in Nigeria

      February 22, 2021

      Analyst Insight

      Do we need more start-ups in insurance?

      February 16, 2021

      Analyst Insight

      Naira, PMI’s and Inflation in focus

      February 16, 2021

Frontpage

Facebook explains why it bans some content, publishes internal enforcement guidelines

April 24, 2018980 views0 comments

Facebook, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, for the first time made public 27-paged internal enforcement guidelines, called Community Standards, that it gives to its workforce of thousands of human censors to determine whether comments, messages, or images posted by its 2.2 billion users violate its policy.

The release of the guidelines is part of a wave of transparency that Facebook hopes will quell its many critics. It has also published political ads and streamlined its privacy controls after coming under fire for its lax approach to protecting consumer data.

The company said it was laying bare just how much ugliness its global content moderators deal with every day, and just how hard it is to always get it right.

Monika Bickert, its vice president of global product management, in a blog post distributed by APO Group, said one of the questions “we’re asked most often is how we decide what’s allowed on Facebook”, adding that the decisions are among the most important they make since they’re central to ensuring that Facebook is both a safe place and a place to freely discuss different points of view.

“For years, we’ve had Community Standards that explain what stays up and what comes down.

“Today we’re going one step further and publishing the internal guidelines we use to enforce those standards. And for the first time we’re giving you the right to appeal our decisions on individual posts so you can ask for a second opinion when you think we’ve made a mistake,” Bickert said.

She said Facebook decided to publish the internal guidelines for two reasons. First, to help people understand where the social network draws the line on nuanced issues. Second, to make it easier for everyone, including experts in different fields, to give it feedback so that it can improve the guidelines – and the decisions it makes over time.

The guidelines encompass dozens of topics including hate speech, violent imagery, misrepresentation, terrorist propaganda, and disinformation. Facebook said it would offer users the opportunity to appeal Facebook’s decisions.

“We want people to know our standards and we want to give people clarity,” Bickert, said, adding that she hoped publishing the guidelines would spark dialogue. “We are trying to strike the line between safety and giving people the ability to really express themselves.”

The company’s censors, called content moderators, have been chastised by civil rights groups for mistakenly removing posts by minorities who had shared stories of being the victims of racial slurs. Moderators have struggled to tell the difference between someone posting a slur as an attack and someone who was using the slur to tell the story of their own victimization.

The company’s content policies, which began in earnest in 2005, addressed nudity and Holocaust denial in the early years. They have ballooned from a single page in 2008 to 27 pages today.

As Facebook has come to reach nearly a third of the world’s population, Bickert’s team has expanded significantly, and is expected to grow even more in the coming year. A far-flung team of 7,500 reviewers, in places like Austin, Dublin, and the Philippines, assesses posts 24-hours a day, seven days a week, in more than 40 languages. Moderators are sometimes temporary contract workers without much cultural familiarity with the content they are judging, and they make complex decisions in applying Facebook’s rules.

Activists and users have been particularly frustrated by the absence of an appeals process when their posts are taken down. (Facebook users are allowed to appeal the shutdown of an entire account, but not individual posts.) The Washington Post previously documented how people have liked this this predicament to being put into “Facebook jail” – without being given a reason why they were locked up.

On how appeals work, Bickert said “If your photo, video or post has been removed because it violates our Community Standards, you will be notified, and given the option to request additional review.

“This will lead to a review by our team (always by a person), typically within 24 hours. If we’ve made a mistake, we will notify you, and your post, photo or video will be restored,” she noted, adding “We are working to extend this process further, by supporting more violation types, giving people the opportunity to provide more context that could help us make the right decision, and making appeals available not just for content that was taken down, but also for content that was reported and left up. We believe giving people a voice in the process is another essential component of building a fair system.”

Share on Facebook Tweet Email
TagsAPO Group Enforcement guidelines Facebook Facebook users
PreviousSkye Bank recruits entry-level staff nationwide
NextLa Giara, Sheraton Lagos Hotel’s Italian restaurant, reopens May, following renovation

Leave a comment

- Cancel reply

MARKET DATA

Market Videos

Recent Posts

  • Lions’ Den 2021: An opportunity for promising Nigerian entrepreneurs
  • Nigeria bourse in red as selloffs in banking, consumer goods stocks see bears return  
  • African Alliance paid N967m in claims in first 40 days of 2021, MD reveals
  • REA delivers 100kW hybrid solar mini grid to Edo community
  • Unilever Nigeria to complete tea business separation by end of 2021

World

Africa

Buhari, Okonjo-Iweala congratulate Adesina over reelection as AfDB President

Europe

EU businesses to cut investments in 2020, says EIB report

America

U.S. increases cost of visa application for Nigerians

Africa

Thatcher-Loving Nigeria Candidate Plans to Overhaul Economy

Africa

AfDB scales up industrialization pace on the continent, delivers improved business access to finance, skills, energy

Frontpage posts

0

Nigeria’s telecoms sector loses $3bn yearly to call masking, other sharp practices

Frontpage September 27, 2018

1
2

Action Aid wants FG to shelve VAT increase, strengthen anti-corruption institutions

Frontpage March 26, 2019

3

Nigeria’s cocoa export rises 300,000 tonnes from 250,000 in 2016 triggered by naira devaluation

Frontpage May 20, 2018

4

Shell earnings in Q1 2018 rise 42% on soaring oil, gas prices

Frontpage April 26, 2018

5

Airtel seeks to list on Nigerian Stock Exchange

Frontpage May 29, 2019

SUPPORT

  • Photo Gallery
  • Help Centre
  • About Us
  • Accessibility

LEGAL & PRIVACY

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Copyright

SERVICES

  • Conferences & Events
  • Analysts Research
  • Advertising Rate
  • Ebooks

TOOLS

  • Portfolio
  • Newsletters
  • News feed
  • Currency Converter

SUBSCRIBE

Join us to get latest updates on business related news.

[mc4wp_form id="3076"]
  • ABOUT US
  • CONTACT US
  • CAREERS
  • TERMS & CONDITIONS
  • PRIVACY POLICY
Copyright 2017. All rights reserved. BusinessAMLive. A Businessnewscorp Member Company.