It’s a tale as old as the internet.
Social platforms like Facebook and YouTube
The latest example concerns anti-semitic content. There is a
As
Specifically, the Center for Countering Digital Hate reports that Facebook removed just over 10 percent of the “hundreds” of pieces of content the researchers reported, while Twitter acted on around 11 percent. YouTube responded to 21 percent, and TikTok acted on 18 percent.
The ADL’s report had similar findings, though Twitter fared better. It assigned grades to platforms based on their responsiveness to reports on hate speech. Twitter got a B- (congrats!), Facebook and TikTok received C- grades, and Roblox got a dismal D.
The director of the ADL summed up the findings appropriately for the Times: The results are depressing, but unsurprising.
That’s because these reports are just the latest examples of how users keep successfully publishing content that social platforms say they prohibit, with objectionable content running the gamut from hate speech to Covid-19 misinformation to incitements to violence.
In late July, The Washington Post reported on
In April,
Thanks in part to the abhorrent rhetoric of politicians like Donald Trump, throughout the pandemic, Asian people have
These reports all fall under the categories of content Facebook and, for the most part, other platforms ban in their
Facebook publishes a quarterly Community Standards Enforcement Report, which shows data about numbers of reports of prohibited content, and Facebook’s responsiveness. The
The recent reports on anti-semitic posts show the gaps in these figures, however. That 97 percent refers to posts the social media company removes, but there were still plenty of posts for the non-profit organizations to find (and report themselves). On the combined platforms, 7.3 million people viewed the anti-semitic posts, the Center for Countering Digital Hate found.
The fact that we’ve heard this story before doesn’t make it any less upsetting. These companies continually pledge to improve and acknowledge that they have work to do. In the meantime, people die.