Facebook released guidelines content managers use to decide whether posts should be removed. Dado Ruvic / Reuters
Facebook released guidelines content managers use to decide whether posts should be removed. Dado Ruvic / Reuters
Facebook released guidelines content managers use to decide whether posts should be removed. Dado Ruvic / Reuters
Facebook released guidelines content managers use to decide whether posts should be removed. Dado Ruvic / Reuters

Facebook reveals secret guidelines used to police extremist content


  • English
  • Arabic

Facebook has published the secretive rules its 7,500 content monitors use to remove posts likely to promote terrorism, incite violence or breach company policies covering everything from hate speech to child exploitation, sex, bullying and drugs.

The 27-page Facebook rule book released Tuesday offers an unprecedented insight into how the company decides what its two billion users may or may not share, and how the social media giant navigates the line between censorship and free speech. The rules update the short "community standards" guidelines Facebook has previously allowed users to see.

"You should, when you come to Facebook, understand where we draw these lines and what is okay and what's not okay," Facebook's vice president of product policy and counter-terrorism Monika Bickert, a former US federal prosecutor, told reporters on Tuesday.

In Facebook's “Graphic Violence” guidelines section, for example, Facebook explains that it removes content that “glorifies violence or celebrates the suffering or humiliation of others” but allows graphic content, with some limitations, to help people raise awareness about issues. In its “Hate Speech” section, Facebook said it doesn’t allow speech that “creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion and in some cases may promote real-world violence”.

The rule book does not address controversial issues that have dogged Facebook for months, however, including the publication of fake news, the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal, or questions about whether Facebook is doing enough to protect the welfare of children online. On Monday, Facebook took another hit when it was sued for defamation by Martin Lewis, a British financial expert who claims his image has been used in 50 fake Facebook adverts to scam millions from vulnerable people.

_____________

Read more

_____________

Siobhan Cummiskey, Facebook's head of policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, admitted the company's enforcement of policy violations isn’t perfect but insisted Facebook had the interests of its users at heart and plans to hire additional content reviewers to beef up its 7,500-strong team worldwide.

In an interview with Sky News, Ms Cummiskey said the company uses a combination of technology, human reviewers and the flagging of problem content to remove texts, pictures and video posts that violate standards.

"In the context of child exploitation imagery, we use technology in order to stop the re-upload of known child exploitation images,” she said.

"Technology is also helping to counter terrorism. Ninety-nine percent of terrorist content is removed before it is ever flagged by our community of users."

She insisted that Facebook considers the safety of its users to be paramount “and that's really why we are publishing this new set of community standards".

Facebook told reporters that it considers changes to its content policy every two weeks at a meeting called the “Content Standards Forum,” led by Ms Bickert. Its standards are based, in part, on feedback from more than 100 outside organisations and experts in counter-terrorism, child exploitation and other areas.

For the first time, Facebook said it would also introduce a mechanism that will allow users to appeal decisions to take down content. Previously, users could only appeal the removal of accounts, Groups and Pages.

The new standards highlight Facebook’s determination to act on unacceptable content, but they are also an admission by Facebook that it needs to improve.

"Our policies are only as good as the strength and accuracy of our enforcement and our enforcement isn't perfect. We make mistakes because our processes involve people and people are not infallible," Ms Bickert said in a blog post.

Technology writers were divided about why Facebook chose to release the guidelines on Tuesday.

“Coming soon after CEO Mark Zuckerberg's testimony in two lengthy Congressional hearings earlier this month, the release is well-timed if not overdue,” Wired reported.

Quartz noted that some of the new rules were “clearly developed in response to a backlash Facebook received in the past.”

TechCrunch commended Facebook for making some “significant improvements” but added that the company was effectively shifting criticism to its underlying policy instead of individual incidents of enforcement mistakes, such as the 2016 controversy where Facebook took down posts of the newsworthy Napalm Girl historical photo because it contains child nudity, then restored the posts.

The 27-page Facebook guide is filled with minute detail from definitions to explanations about why Facebook removes specific content, including violent or sexual images.

Under the “Graphic Violence” section, for example, Facebook says users should not share images of violence against people or animals with comments or captions by the poster containing enjoyment of suffering or humiliation, an erotic response to suffering, remarks that speak positively of the violence or remarks indicating the poster is sharing footage for sensational viewing pleasure.

FIXTURES

All kick-off times UAE ( 4 GMT)

Friday
Sevilla v Levante (midnight)

Saturday
Athletic Bilbao v Real Sociedad (7.15pm)
Eibar v Valencia (9.30pm)
Atletico Madrid v Alaves (11.45pm)

Sunday
Girona v Getafe (3pm)
Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7.15pm)
Las Palmas v Espanyol (9.30pm)
Barcelona v Deportivo la Coruna (11.45pm)

Monday
Malaga v Real Betis (midnight)

McIlroy's recent struggles

Last six stroke-play events (First round score in brackets)

Arnold Palmer Invitational Tied for 4th (74)

The US Masters Tied for 7th (72)

The Players Championship Tied for 35th (73)

US Open Missed the cut (78)

Travellers Championship Tied for 17th (67)

Irish Open Missed the cut (72)

The%20Super%20Mario%20Bros%20Movie
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirectors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Aaron%20Horvath%20and%20Michael%20Jelenic%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Chris%20Pratt%2C%20Anya%20Taylor-Joy%2C%20Charlie%20Day%2C%20Jack%20Black%2C%20Seth%20Rogen%20and%20Keegan-Michael%20Key%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo

Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm

Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm

Transmission: 9-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km

On sale: Now

Price: From Dh117,059

David Haye record

Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4

MATCH INFO

Europa League semi-final, second leg
Atletico Madrid (1) v Arsenal (1)

Where: Wanda Metropolitano
When: Thursday, kick-off 10.45pm
Live: On BeIN Sports HD

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

A Prayer Before Dawn

Director: Jean-Stephane Sauvaire

Starring: Joe Cole, Somluck Kamsing, Panya Yimmumphai

Three stars

The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

BMW M5 specs

Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor

Power: 727hp

Torque: 1,000Nm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km

On sale: Now

Price: From Dh650,000

Who has been sanctioned?

Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.

Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.

Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.

Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.

One in nine do not have enough to eat

Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.

One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.

The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.

Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.

It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.

On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.

Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.

 

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.