Facebook is up Against a Tide of Hate Speech

Facebook is deleting an increasingly high number of hate speech posts from its network. Between Q1 of 2018 and Q1 of 2019 alone, deleted posts went up by 1.5 million, an increase of 60 percent. Whether Facebook is just finding more posts or whether there is really more hate speech being posted on the network is up for debate. In the last decade, Facebook added 15,000 content moderators to its workforce. Yet, the amount of posts qualifying as hate speech under Facebook’s standards is worryingly high.

The social network released new data on what and how much it is deleting today. New metrics included deletions of posts showing illegal firearms and drugs, but their numbers did not come close to those of hate speech.

Facebook claims that it is deleting almost 100 percent of posts containing terrorist propaganda, graphic violence, nudity and child pornography as well as spam and fake accounts before users flag them. For hate speech, as well as regulated goods, the social network still relies on user input to a higher degree but is growing more proactive. Facebook was the slowest to delete posts concerning bullying and harassment, with only 14 percent of posts deleted before they were reported.