Facebook has published its internal enforcement guidelines and has as well expanded its appeals process. These are the social media company’s efforts to make it a safe platform and place to share freely.
“Our policies are only as good as the strength and accuracy of our enforcement – and our enforcement isn’t perfect,” Facebook starts by getting this point across. One of the two challenges it faces in enforcing its policies is identifying potential violations of its standards for reviewing.
This identification process includes technology alongside human resources. Facebook uses a combination of Artificial intelligence and people’s reports for identifying. Then, the reports are reviewed by the company’s Community Operations team, which can work in over 40 languages. Presently, the team includes 7,500 content reviewers, that’s 40% more than the number they had in April before.
Another challenge faced by Facebook is applying its policies relevantly to the flagged content.
In some cases, we make mistakes because our policies are not sufficiently clear to our content reviewers; when that’s the case, we work to fill those gaps. More often than not, however, we make mistakes because our processes involve people, and people are fallible. – Facebook
Regarding the appeals process, Facebook is all set to provide the ability to the users to appeal its decisions on the flagged contents that violate its standards. It is launching appeals for the posts that had been removed for ‘nudity/sexual activity, hate speech or graphic violence.’
This means that you’ll be notified by Facebook when it removes your post that violates its standards. The notification will give you the option to request an additional review. Once you’ve processed the request, the content will be reviewed by personnel from the review team within 24 hours, typically. In case Facebook detects that it was its mistake, it will notify you accordingly, and the post will be restored.
We believe giving people a voice in the process is another essential component of building a fair system. – Facebook
Facebook is on the way to building on this process, asking users for more context that’ll help them make the right decisions. It is providing appeals for not only the posts that were taken down but also those that were reported and left up.
The social networking giant is prioritizing ‘participation and input from people around the world to build on the Facebook internal enforcement guidelines and the new expansion on the appeals process. Coming May will see it arrange for public events on Community Standards in the countries such as Germany, India, France, the U.K., Singapore, the U.S., and more.
