Hate Speech Seen In 10 Out Of 10,000 Views On Our Platform: Facebook

Social media giant Facebook has for the first time disclosed prevalence of hate speech on its platform, saying that out of every 10,000 content views globally in the third quarter, 10-11 were hate speech.

Facebook, which has 1.82 billion daily users globally, has drawn flak in the past for its handling of hate speech on the platform in India that is among its biggest markets.

In its Community Standards Enforcement Report for September 2020 quarter, Facebook said it is including the prevalence of hate speech on its platform globally "for the first time". "In Q3 2020, hate speech prevalence was 0.10 per cent – 0.11 per cent or 10 to 11 views of hate speech for every 10,000 views of content," it added.

Facebook said due to its investments in artificial intelligence, the company has been able to remove more hate speech and find more of it proactively before users report it. "Our enforcement metrics this quarter, including how much hate speech content we found proactively and how much content we took action on, indicate that we're making progress in catching harmful content," it added.

Prevalence, on the other hand, estimates the percentage of times people see violating content on its platform, Facebook explained.

During the third quarter, Facebook took action on 22.1 million pieces of hate speech content, about 95 per cent of which was proactively identified. On Instagram, the company took action on 6.5 million pieces of hate speech content (up from 3.2 million in June quarter), about 95 per cent of which was proactively identified (up from about 85 per cent in the previous quarter), it added.

The latest Community Standards Enforcement Report provides metrics on how Facebook enforced its policies from July to September, and includes metrics across 12 policies on Facebook and 10 policies on Instagram.

Facebook Vice-President (Integrity) Guy Rosen said the company is also updating its Community Standards website to include additional policies that require more context and can't always be applied at scale.

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.

As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.

Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.

Digital Editor