Facebook bans content including blackface and anti-Semitic stereotypes

Facebook is updating its policies regarding hate speech to ban content that depicts blackface and anti-Semitic stereotypes.

“We’re updating our policies to more specifically account for certain kinds of implicit hate speech, such as content depicting blackface, or stereotypes about Jewish people controlling the world,” the social media giant stated in a its Community Standards Enforcement Report.

The social media giant notes that since October 2019, it conducted 14 strategic network disruptions to remove 23 different banned organizations, over half of which support white supremacy.

It outlines that despite the impact of the COVID-19, its improved technology has allowed it to take action on more content and increase its detection rate. For instance, Facebook says that its proactive detection rate for hate speech increased six points from 89 percent to 95 percent.

Further, the amount of content Facebook took action on increased from 9.6 million in Q1 to 22.5 million in Q2. It notes that this is because it expanded some of its automation technology in Spanish, Arabic and Indonesian.

In terms of Instagram, Facebook says that its proactive detection rate for hate speech increased 39 points from 45 percent to 84 percent. The amount of content it took action on increased from 808,900 in Q1 to 3.3 million in Q2.

“We’ve made progress combating hate on our apps, but we know we have more to do to ensure everyone feels comfortable using our services,” Facebook outlined.

The company says it’s going to undergo an independent third-party audit starting in 2021 to validate the numbers it publishes in its Community Standards Enforcement Reports.

Source: Facebook