Facebook protecting far-right activists, ignoring under-age accounts: Report

Moderators at Facebook are protecting far-right activists, preventing their Pages from being deleted even after they violate the rules set up by the social media giant, the media reported. The process called “shielded review” was uncovered by Channel 4 Dispatches, a documentary series that sent an undercover reporter to work as a content moderator in a Dublin-based Facebook contractor. “In the documentary, a moderator tells the ‘Dispatches’ reporter that Britain First’s pages were left up, even though they repeatedly broke Facebook’s rules, because ’they have a lot of followers so they’re generating a lot of revenue for Facebook’,” The Guardian reported on 17 July. Similarly, popular pages, including those of activists like Tommy Robinson, are protected from Facebook rules. Robinson is currently in jail, serving a 13-month sentence for contempt of court.

Richard Allan, Facebook’s head of Public Policy, was quoted as saying in the documentary that the company’s rules are based on revenue. “If the content is indeed violating it will go,” Allan said. Facebook, however, said it will remove Robinson’s page if he repeatedly violated the site’s community standards. Britain First’s Facebook page was eventually banned in March 2018. “It’s clear that some of what is shown in the programme does not reflect Facebook’s policies or values, and falls short of the high standards we expect. “We take these mistakes in some of our training processes and enforcement incredibly seriously and are grateful to the journalists who brought them to our attention,” Allan said. The documentary also showed that Facebook moderators have turned blind eye to under-age accounts. “Moderators are told they can only take action to close down the account of a child who clearly looks 10-years-old if the child actually admits in posts they are under-aged,” The Telegraph reported, citing the documentary. “We have to have an admission that the person is under-age. If not, we just pretend that we are blind and we don’t know what underage looks like,” a trainer told the undercover reporter. Facebook is also facing the flak for launching Messenger Kids that encourages children under age 13 to join social media. British Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in December warned the social media giant to stay away from his children. Early this year, more than 100 child health experts have urged Facebook to withdraw the app. Despite call for withdrawal by experts, Facebook has decided to expand the reach of Messenger Kids by introducing the video calling and messaging app designed for children under 13 to families in Canada and Peru. Facebook said it will also introduce Spanish and French versions of the app.