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Facebook hiring 3,000 people to tackle offensive content
Recently, there has been a craze of disturbing videos streamed on Facebook Live. A few case examples being:
Larossi Abballa’s 12-minute video, where he pledged allegiance to Isis after murdering a French police officer and his partner.
A gang rape of a 15-year-old girl in Chicago
Torture of a disabled teenager
The death of grandfather Robert Godwin Sr
A Thai man performing murder-suicide, by killing his daughter, then himself
All these cases have been disturbing and heartbreaking for all involved and for many people who viewed the clips, and understandably users have asked Facebook what they plan to do about it.
Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that it had been “heartbreaking” seeing people “hurting themselves and others.”
In an attempt to eradicate these incidents, Facebook is hiring 3,000 people to join the “community operations team” to help prevent hate speech, child abuse and self-harm being broadcasted.
Zuckerberg mentioned the additional staff will help the platform respond quicker when content has been reported.
In a post to his Facebook profile, he stated that the company is continuously looking to develop new tools to manage the 'content reports' received every week.
"We're going to make it simpler to report problems to us, faster for our reviewers to determine which posts violate our standards and easier for them to contact law enforcement if someone needs help," he said
He added that moderators would involve law enforcement, instead of contacting members directly.
"Just last week, we got a report that someone on Live [video] was considering suicide. We immediately reached out to law enforcement, and they were able to prevent him from hurting himself", said Mr Zuckerberg.
Facebook and social media, in general, is a vital place in society. So it is important to keep the platform as safe as possible for its users and at the same time, taking care of those in trouble.
