Facebook will increase video monitoring
Facebook will hire 3,000 people to review videos on the social network in an effort to monitor the site for the kind of violent and disturbing videos that have plagued it in recent weeks.
The announcement came hours before the company reported its first-quarter earnings. It revealed strong revenue growth, suggesting the financial capacity to boost spending on the problem.
Videos ranging from a seemingly random shooting in Cleveland to the gruesome murder of an 11-month-old child by her father in Thailand have been broadcast on Facebook, in some cases for hours before the Menlo Park company intervened.
Rapes, sexual assaults and other acts of violence have previously been recorded and
broadcast.
“Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen people hurting themselves and others on Facebook — either live or in video posted later. It’s heartbreaking, and I’ve been reflecting on how we can do better,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in an announcement on his own Facebook page. “If we’re going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly.”
The early Wednesday announcement that Facebook would broaden its community operations team from 4,500 to 7,500 during the coming year demonstrates a greater willingness to take responsibility for the content that users post — a burden Facebook had previously dodged.
But investors and analysts, who peppered Zuckerberg and other executives with questions during a conference call Wednesday to discuss its first-quarter financial performance, largely ignored the recent controversies — even as the company touted its emphasis on video.
One analyst asked about the spate of violent content Facebook has struggled to manage since it introduced its live-video feature late last year. The inquiry centered on the company’s decision to hire more humans to monitor the flood of video uploads the site receives every day.
Artificial intelligence, or computer programs that are able to recognize and interpret images, may someday replace some number of the people that Facebook assigns to content monitoring, Zuckerberg said. But, he added, those tools are not yet nuanced or advanced enough to flag problem videos at the rate Facebook now believes is necessary.
“It will take years to reach the quality level that we want,” he said of artificial intelligence. “No matter how many people we have on the (community operations team), we’ll never be able to look at everything. But given the importance of this and how quickly live video is growing,” Facebook feels it is important to expand the team immediately.
The team’s purpose is not only to flag videos that violate Facebook’s terms of use — videos that are violent, sexually explicit or offensive may be flagged by users and removed by the company — but also to monitor videos for crimes or instances in which a person may need help from law enforcement, Zuckerberg said.
Last week, a 49-yearold Alabama man became the latest to broadcast his death. Distraught over a breakup, the man shot himself in the head with a rifle while live-streaming video on the social network.
Facebook has also used its live video feature to direct law enforcement to users who were live-streaming suicide attempts or cries for help. During the conference call with investors Wednesday, Zuckerberg pointed to a particular incident in which Facebook decided to leave the video stream of a suicidal man up and running while the company helped law enforcement find him and offer aid before he could harm himself.
“A lot of what we’re trying to do here is not just get content off Facebook,” Zuckerberg said. “We want to help people when they’re in need . ... We take that very, very seriously.”
The solemnity of Facebook’s newfound responsibility was largely eclipsed during the call Wednesday by news of the company’s whopping revenue growth and continually expanding audience.
Facebook saw a 49 percent jump in revenue during the first three months of the year, which blew past Wall Street expectations. The company reported $8.03 billion in revenue, while investors largely expected sales in the range of $7.83 billion.
More than 1.94 billion people use the social network every month, up from the 1.86 billion the company reported last quarter. Of those, 1.28 billion people use Facebook daily.
The company has warned investors that this growth rate is unlikely to continue throughout the year, noting that a meaningful slowdown may be imminent as the company reaches the upper limit of the number of ads it can show users.
Wall Street will watch closely as Facebook looks to ads on Instagram and on videos to push continued advertising growth.