RULES OF THUMB
Facebook manuals reveal criteria for banning toxic content
FACEBOOK’S rules for censoring content have been exposed in a leak of internal documents.
The manuals supplied to staff moderating posts on the giant social media site reveal the criteria used to judge if posts are too violent, sexual, racist, hateful or support terrorism. They were obtained by The Guardian, who said the moderators are “overwhelmed” by the volume of work and have only seconds to decide if posts should stay. The leak – which exposes some apparently bizarre differences in policy – comes shortly after MPS said social media sites were “failing” to tackle toxic content. Moderators interviewed by The Guardian labelled the Facebook policies “inconsistent” and “peculiar”. The documents reveal that a remark such as: “Someone shoot Trump” is recommended for deletion because, as a head of state, the US president is in a protected category. But a user could be allowed to post: “To snap a b***h’s neck, make sure to apply all your pressure to the middle of her throat” or:“f**k off and die” because they are not regarded as credible threats. The manuals cover subjects including hate speech, revenge porn, self-harm, suicide and threats of violence. Monica Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, said: “We work hard to make Facebook as safe as possible, while enabling free speech. “This requires a lot of thought into detailed and often difficult questions, and getting it right is something we take very seriously.” But the children’s charity NSPCC said the report into how Facebook worked was “alarming, to say the least”. The organisation added: “Facebook and other social media companies need to be independently regulated and fined when they fail to keep children safe.”